YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY 
OF THE WORLD WAR 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

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Young People's History 
of the World War 



BY 

LOUIS P. BENEZET 

SUPERINTENDENT OF SCHOOLS 
EVANSVILLE, INDIANA 



THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 

1922 

All rights reserved 



PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 



^ 1 






Copyright, 1922, 
By THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. 



Set up and electrotyped. Published February, 1922. 



Norfoooti press 

J. S. Cushing Co. — Berwick & Smith Co. 

Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. 



MAR - 1 1922 
©CU653994 



TO THE MEMORY OF HOBART A. H. BAKER, 
VICTOR E. CHAPMAN, HENRY A. COIT, QUINCY 
S. GREENE, HARRY INGERSOLL, AND EDWARD 
C. SORTWELL, MY FORMER PUPILS, WHO 
GAVE THEIR LIVES THAT OUR TYPE OF 
CIVILIZATION SHOULD NOT PERISH 



FOREWORD 

For a year or two following the Armistice of No- 
vember, 191 8, and especially after the signing of 
the Peace Treaty in the early summer of 1919, the 
peoples of the victorious allied countries showed a 
decided disinclination to hear or read about the 
great war. They had been so thoroughly surfeited 
with tales of heroism, so numbed by the daily cas- 
ualty lists, so bombarded by patriotic propaganda, 
that they wished only to forget the whole horrible 
business. 

Of late, however, there has been a renascence 
of interest. A new generation is growing up, com- 
posed of young folks who were not old enough in 
1 914- 1 7 to know what it was all about. It is with 
these people in mind that this volume has been writ- 
ten. It is not well that the valorous deeds of this 
terrible period should be forgotten. If mankind 
is to advance, we must learn to avoid in the future 
the mistakes of the past. The time must never 
come again when a nation shall regard the pledge 
of its sacred honor as a " scrap of paper." A nation 
must know that, like an individual, it is bound by 
moral law, even though there exist no interna- 
tional court or international police power to en- 
force it. 

vii 



viii FOREWORD 

The lesson of the World War is a tremendous one. 
Summed up in a single sentence it is, "It must never 
happen again." The morale of the men in the 
trenches, on the allied side, at least, was kept up 
through the weary years of struggle by the persistent 
propaganda that this was to be the last war, — the 
war to end war. We are playing falsely with the 
nine million dead, — the flower of the young man- 
hood of a dozen nations — if we fail to keep before 
the minds of their young brothers the glorious story 
of their sacrifice and the awful needlessness of it all. 

If war is to be blotted off the face of the earth, 
each must do his "bit." This small contribution 
is offered to swell the mighty and ever growing vol- 
ume of demands that nations, like individuals, deal 
with each other openly, honorably, and without 
greed. When that day shall have come, the navies 
and armies of the world will have gone the way of 
the rapier, which every gentleman of the sixteenth 
century was obliged to carry, or the six-shooter, 
which took the place of courts and juries in the days 
of '49. 

While this volume is written for the understand- 
ing of young people, it is the hope of the author that 
many older readers may find in his pages some- 
thing to repay their time. 

Louis P. Benezet. 

Evansville, Indiana, 
December 22, 1921. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 

CHAPTER PAGE 

I. The Junkers and Their Leader i 

II. The Middle-Europe Scheme 20 

III. The Blow 40 

IV. Where Germany Miscalculated .... 62 
V. The Seven Seas and the Six Continents . . 99 

VI. The Year 1915 123 

VII. Ups and Downs 161 

VIII. The Issue Plain 196 

IX. Dark Days 233 

X. At Lowest Ebb 256 

XI. Ships, Fuel, and Food 293 

XII. Hold the Fort 314 

XIII. The Beginning of the End . . . . . 333 

XIV. From Victory to Victory 360 

XV. The Home Fronts 390 

XVI. The Sinking Ship and the Rats .... 419 

XVII. The Closing Scenes 448 

Index 477 



IX 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



PAGE 



Bismarck Dictating Terms of Peace to Thiers and Ferry . . n 

" Dropping the Pilot " 15 

The German Imperial Chancellor, von Bethmann-Hollweg . 66 

The Grand Duke Nicholas of Russia 71 

General von Hindenburg 72 

General JofTre 78 

General Gallieni 79 

General Foch as He Appeared Early in the War ... 83 

Winston Churchill 100 

Talaat Pasha in Berlin 105 

The Goeben off Constantinople 107 

Enver Pasha . 109 

The Bliicher Sinking 120 

Warships in the Dardanelles 128 

General Dimitrieff ' . . .134 

General Cadorna 143 

General von Falkenhayn 165 

The Gun That Saved France 166 

General Petain . 168 

The German Crown Prince 169 

General Brusiloff 174 

Admiral Beatty 177 

General Berthelot 194 

Nicholas II, Tzar of All the Russias 204 

Alexander Kerensky 205 

Nikolai Lenin 206 

xi 



xii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 

PAGE 

Amid the Ruins of Peronne 210 

General Pershing at the Tomb of Lafayette . . . .218 

General Nivelle 220 

A Captured German " Pill-box " with French Poilus . . . 248 

General Diaz 250 

General Byng 252 

General Allenby .255 

David Lloyd-George 257 

Leon Trotzky 268 

General Ludendorff 280 

General Fayolle 286 

General Home 291 

Damage Done to One of the German Ships Docked at Hoboken 298 

The Young Americans " . .299 

Herbert Hoover 301 

Dr. Harry A. Garfield 303 

Alexandre Ribot 305 

Field-Marshal Sir Douglas Haig 316 

General Mangin 331 

General Gouraud 339 

General Foch as He Appeared at the End of the War . .341 

General Degoutte 343 

General Rawlinson 350 

General Debeney 351 

General Humbert . . . 352 

A Company of the Smaller, Faster French Tanks . . . 353 

German Prisoners Guarded by British "Tommies" . . . 354 

Professor Thomas G. Masaryk 355 

General Pershing 371 

Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria 379 

Trenches and Barbed Wire in the Argonne Forest . . . 384 

Albert, King of the Belgians 387 



LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 



Xlll 



General Plumer 

A "Four Minute Man" Addressing a Crowd 

Pope Benedict XV 

Emperor Karl of Austria 

General Franchet d'Esperey 

General de Castelnau 

General Guillaumat 

Woodrow Wilson 

General Liggett . 

General Bullard . 

General Badoglio 

Friedrich Ebert . 

Kaiser Wilhelm II 

Georges Clemenceau 



PAGE 

388 

400 

403 
410 
421 
429 
430 
442 

449 
45o 
455 
463 
463 
469 



LIST OF MAPS 



PAGE 



Racial Map of Austria-Hungary 2 n 

The First Battle of the Marne g 

The Retreat from Antwerp and the Race for the Sea . . . 86 
The Line of Trenches from Switzerland to the Sea, December 31, 

X 9H I24 

The Great Russian Retreat x ■,* 

The Attack on Serbia, October, 1915 j„ 

Conquests of the Central Powers and of the Allies, February, 

*9 l6 ... ' l63 

The Great Advance of Brusiloff I7 ^ 

Russian Losses through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk . . .273 
The Drive of March 21, as Planned by Ludendorff, and as 

Actually Accomplished 2 %j 

Germany's Gains, 191 8 ™ 

The Second Battle of the Marne ^47 

The Breaking of the Bulgarian Front, September, iqrS . . 378 

Allenby's Victory over the Turks 381 

Map of the Western Front, Showing Changes in the Battle 

Lines during 191 8 4 5 7 



YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY 
OF THE WORLD WAR 



A YOUNG PEOPLE'S HISTORY 
OF THE WORLD WAR 

CHAPTER I 
The Junkers and Their Leader 

Civilization cracking apart. — How the Kaiser, as King of Prussia, 
ruled all Germany. — The military system of the Prussian Jun- 
kers. — Bismarck and his Junker-built empire. — The arrogance 
of the military group. — Foreign dealings. — The young Kaiser 
asserts his independence. — The sea Junkers and their program. 

No one who was old enough to read the news- 
papers in the summer of 19 14 will forget the aston- 
ishment with which the American people learned of 
the outbreak of the World War. 

There was a sense of bewilderment, a feeling that 
it simply could not be true, as we heard that the 
men of the five greatest nations in Europe, together 
with those of three smaller countries, were flying 
at each other's throats to wound, maim, and kill. 

For an even hundred years the United States had 
kept out of European quarrels. Our little war with 
Spain in 1898 had dealt entirely with Cuban troubles. 

Very few people on this side of the Atlantic knew 
much about the history of Europe or the reasons 
why one country was afraid of being attacked by 



2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

another. We had read, of course, of the big standing 
armies of Russia, Austria, Germany, and France, 
but this did not mean much to us. We knew about 
the wars that had taken place between Russia and 
Japan, and between Turkey and Italy, but we had 
thought of Russia and Turkey as not being highly 
civilized. We had the idea that most of the 
nations of western Europe, like Great Britain, 
France, Germany, Austria, Italy, Sweden, Norway, 
Holland, and Belgium were too well educated and 
too civilized ever to go to war with each other. 

Suddenly, we read that Austria had attacked the 
little country of Serbia. As far as we could see, there 
was no excuse for this. Then Russia warned Aus- 
tria to keep hands off and to let little Serbia alone. 
Next, Germany sent word to Russia that she must 
stop threatening Austria with her armies ; that if 
Russia kept on, Germany would make war on her. 
Then we read that Germany had actually attacked, 
not Russia, as one would expect, but France, who, 
as far as we could see, was an innocent bystander. 
At the same time, we heard, with astonishment, 
that the German army, in order to attack the French 
from the north, was marching through the country 
of the Belgians, who seemed bystanders still more 
innocent. The following day, news came that Eng- 
land, which, next to our own country, was the most 
peaceful nation in the world, had declared war on 
Germany. Declaration of war followed declaration 
of war so rapidly that we could not keep track of 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 3 

them. Why all this took place and why it was 
that these countries were fighting, it is important 
that we know. 

The German empire from 1871 to 1918 was gov- 
erned in a curious way. Although parts of western 
and southern Germany were filled with large indus- 
trial cities, the great majority of whose inhabitants 
were occupied in trade and manufacture, the German 
people really had little or no voice in the govern- 
ment. To be sure, they elected representatives to 
one law-making house of the German Congress, which 
they called the Reichstag, but no law could be 
passed if thirteen members of the other house, called 
the Bundesrat, voted against it. Now seventeen 
members of the Bundesrat were picked out by the 
King of Prussia, who was also the German Emperor 
(Kaiser), so that really no matter what the mem- 
bers elected by the people might say or do in the 
Reichstag, the real master of the German empire 
was the Kaiser. He ruled with almost as much 
power as the Tzar of Russia. To be sure, the Ger- 
man people were so much better educated than the 
Russians that the Kaiser had thought it wise to 
allow them to make certain laws that kept them 
contented ; but when it came to questions of the 
army or of war and preparation for war, he was an 
absolute monarch. 

In England, France, and Italy, the man who sees 
to it that laws are obeyed, and who is the real ruler 
of the country, is the Prime Minister. He holds 



4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

his place only as long as the majority of the people's 
representatives in Congress support him. When 
they vote against him, he must resign. 

In Germany, on the other hand, the Chancellor 
of the empire, who held a place like that of the 
Prime Ministers in the other countries, was not 
accountable to the Reichstag at all. He did not 
have to be satisfactory to the people or to their 
representatives. So long as he was pleasing to the 
Kaiser he still ruled the German nation. Appointed 
by the Kaiser, and acting as Prime Minister of 
Prussia as well as German Chancellor, he was able 
to do this because so large a part of Prussia, which 
was the largest state in the empire (nearly two- 
thirds of the inhabitants of Germany lived in Prussia) 
was under the control of the descendants of the old 
warrior chiefs that ruled these lands during the 
middle ages. 

In the Prussian elections people voted in three 
different classes according to the amount of property 
that they owned. The vote of any two classes out- 
weighed the vote of the third. There was one district 
in Prussia where one very rich man owned one third 
of all the property. He was the only voter in the 
first class. Fifty -two other men owned another third 
of the property. They voted in the second class. 
The rest of the ten thousand people living in this 
district made up the third class. If twenty-seven 
of the fifty-two men in the second class voted for 
the same candidate that the one man in the first 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 5 

class voted for, these twenty-eight could elect him, 
even though all the other thousands voted together 
for someone else. In this way the rich and powerful, 
who were mostly descendants of the old fighting 
chiefs of the middle ages, ruled the great country of 
Prussia, and through Prussia controlled the German 
empire. These rich landowners and their relatives 
are known by the name Junkers (yoon'kers). It 
will be interesting to learn something about them 
and their country of Prussia. 

In its origin, the name Prussia is not a German 
name at all. The first Prussians were not a Germanic 
tribe. They spoke a language more like the Russian 
or the Polish. The district known as Prussia two 
hundred years ago was located on the southeastern 
coast of the Baltic Sea. A number of German 
fighting men, a secret order, called the Teutonic 
Knights, had settled there, conquered the Slavs, 
Lithuanians, and Prussians, and ruled the country 
at the point of the sword. They had encouraged 
other Germans to move into this district until there 
came to be a large colony of them around the city of 
Konigsberg (ku'niks barg) . Then a daughter of one 
of the dukes of this now Germanized county of 
Prussia had married a German Count of Brandenburg 
whose family name was Hohenzollern. The Duke of 
Prussia had no other children, so his grandson be- 
came, in course of time, both Duke of Prussia and 
Count of Brandenburg. Brandenburg was the county 
in which was situated the little city of Berlin. Be- 



6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

tween Brandenburg and this German part of Prussia 
was the county of West Prussia, inhabited by Poles 
and other Slavic tribes. 

Finally, one vain Count of Brandenburg changed 
his title to that of King of Prussia. His father and 
grandfather had been ambitious men who had added 
greatly to their lands by waging war on their neigh- 
bors. These neighbors did not wish to be annexed 
to Brandenburg, but had been compelled to join it 
by the bigger armies of the Brandenburg counts. 

At last there came a king of Prussia who was one 
of the most wonderful fighters that the world has 
ever produced. He is known in history as Frederick 
the Great. He was a cold-blooded, unscrupulous, 
forceful ruler (very much like other kings of his 
time, however). He lived during the early days of 
our first President, George Washington, but it would 
be hard to find two men whose ideas were more 
different. Frederick, true to the Junker blood in 
his family, started his reign by marching down and 
seizing from the Austrian Empress the rich county 
of Silesia. He had no more right to do this than 
you would have to knock down the first man that 
you might meet on the street and take his watch 
and money away from him. 

There were three long, bitter wars over this seizure, 
but in the end Frederick was the winner and kept 
the stolen land. 

You will remember that West Prussia, a part of 
the country of the Poles, kept Frederick from going 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 7 

from Berlin to his county of East Prussia, around 
Konigsberg, except by water. Toward the end 
of his reign he and his old enemy, the Austrian 
Empress, together with an unscrupulous empress 
who then ruled over Russia, agreed to cut great 
slices off the kingdom of the Poles. The Poles were 
unable to resist. They could not fight three powerful 
nations at once, and another act of brutal robbery 
helped to enlarge the kingdom of Prussia. 

Forty years later, Napoleon Bonaparte, Emperor 
of the French, tried to undo the wrong that the 
three sovereigns had done to Poland by rebuilding 
that state. He forced Prussia and Austria to give 
back a good part of the land that they had stolen. 
But after the kings of Europe had combined against 
him and forced him to leave France, the three 
countries once more divided Poland, giving Russia 
a larger slice than she had had before. To make 
up to the Prussians for losing part of the plunder, 
the kings forcibly cut off half the little kingdom of 
Saxony and joined it to Prussia. They then com- 
pelled certain counties in the west of Germany along 
the River Rhine to join Prussia also. 

After the French, under Napoleon, had beaten 
the Prussian army in 1806, the French Emperor, 
in order to keep the Prussian king from having his 
revenge, gave orders that not more than thirty 
thousand men should be in the Prussian army at 
any one time. The Prussians, however, slyly worked 
up a scheme to deceive Napoleon and train a big 



8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

army to fight him. They called thirty thousand 
young men into the army, trained them hard for a 
few months, and then sent them to their homes, 
taking in their places another thirty thousand who 
went through the same hard drill. A few months 
later, and still another group were brought into 
training. In this way they were able to drill as 
soldiers all the able-bodied men in their kingdom. 
So when Napoleon was beaten by the snow and ice 
in his big winter campaign against Russia, the 
Prussians, to his astonishment, brought out a well- 
drilled, formidable army which helped not a little 
in overthrowing him. 

This was the beginning of the military system of 
the Prussians, a system which turned whole nations 
into armies, and made of Europe one vast armed 
camp. 

In 1 848 the people in many parts of Europe rose up 
and drove several kings from their thrones. France 
became a republic. The Emperor of Austria had 
to give up his throne to his nephew. The Germans 
actually called a Congress to vote a constitution 
which should give the people the right to rule them- 
selves. It seemed as though the end of the rule of 
the Junkers had come in all countries of Europe 
except Russia and Turkey. 

However, the German revolution proved to be a 
fizzle. The revolutionists could not agree, quar- 
reled among themselves, and thus let the kings 
remain in power. The new Emperor of Austria 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 9 

started out with fine promises, but before many 
years he was ruling in the same arrogant way that 
his uncle had. 

In the meantime, an unusual man had come to 
the front in Prussia. This was Count (afterward 
Prince) Bismarck, a true Junker, with all the Jun- 
ker's disdain for the common people and their desire 
for free speech and free government. Bismarck's 
one ambition was to make Prussia the leading mili- 
tary power of Europe. 

He did this through the agency of three wars. 
The first took place in 1864. It was an attack on 
poor little Denmark by the combined armies of 
Prussia and Austria. As a result, two counties 
inhabited partly by Germans and partly by Danes 
were taken away from Denmark. These were 
Schleswig (shlas'vig) and Holstein (hol'shtm) . Next 
Bismarck picked a quarrel with Austria, and, in spite 
of the fact that some of the south German states 
and the north German state of Hanover joined Aus- 
tria, Bismarck, by getting Italy to ally itself with 
him, defeated the Austrians in a short war, crushing 
their armies in a six weeks' campaign. Schleswig, 
Holstein, and Hanover were then forcibly annexed 
to Prussia. 

Bismarck next turned his attention to France, 
which was the strongest military power in Europe 
at that time. He waited until he was sure that the 
Prussian armies would be victorious and until he 
knew that he would have the help of the south Ger- 



io HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

man states, and then picked a quarrel with France 
in a most unscrupulous fashion by altering a certain 
telegram sent him by the King of Prussia. He made 
it appear to the German people that their king had 
been insulted by the French Ambassador, while 
he gave out the news to Paris that the Prussian 
king had practically pushed the French Ambassador 
out-of-doors. The war which resulted lasted less than 
a year. It proved that the French army had been 
in no shape to fight. Some of its generals were 
dishonest and badly trained, and its men poorly sup- 
plied with guns and munitions. 

The states of south Germany now joined with 
Prussia to form a new German empire with the King 
of Prussia as its Kaiser. Bismarck, as Chancellor, 
was the real ruler of the nation. He had been 
intensely unpopular for some time when he was 
forcing Prussia to drill her army and to get ready for 
his wars. He had paid no attention to laws or to 
the votes of the representatives of the people, but 
had contemptuously ignored them, relying on the 
strong support given him by military men and other 
Junkers. 

After 1 87 1, when France was beaten, the majority 
of the German people lined up with the Junkers 
in their program. The successes of the Prussian 
army had turned the whole nation into militarists. 
The Junkers got control of the schools and of the 
newspapers. They taught the children that Ger- 
many was surrounded by jealous neighbors who 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 



II 



might one day attack her if she did not maintain 
a big army. The newspapers kept up the same kind 
of talk. But the people failed to see that the other 
nations were unfriendly only because they feared 




Painted by Anton von Werner 

Bismarck Dictating Terms of Peace to Thiers and Ferry 



the Junkers and what Germany's great army might 
do. 

At the conclusion of the war the Junkers had 
forced France to pay Germany one billion dollars 
and to give up two of her richest counties, Alsace and 
Lorraine. Prussia had picked the quarrel, Prussia 
had led the attack on France, Prussia had robbed 



12 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

her prostrate foe when she was unable to resist any 
longer. The morals of the whole affair were the 
same as if Bismarck had met President Thiers of 
France walking peaceably down the street and had 
beaten him over the head with a club and picked his 
pockets. The German people, by allowing them- 
selves to believe that this sort of thing was right, 
stored up for themselves a dreadful day of reckoning. 

Meanwhile Bismarck became the most popular 
man in the empire ; they hailed him as a hero and 
a demigod. The whole German nation, with few 
exceptions, gloried in the might of their armies. The 
spirit of militarism grew stronger all through the 
land. The Junker officer, in the army, even though 
he might be comparatively poor, was considered in 
rank far above the wealthy merchant or manufac- 
turer, the professor in the university or the eminent 
writer or artist. 

The officers in the German army, who were nearly 
all Junkers, could treat the privates with great arro- 
gance to which the men dared not object. An officer 
could kick his men or cuff them about if he wished. 
When these Junkers walked through the streets of 
the cities, they expected every one to get out of 
their way. American women in Berlin, not knowing 
this custom, were sometimes crowded off the side- 
walks into the gutters by these young officers. 

In 1 91 3 an incident happened in Zabern (tsa'bern), 
a town in Alsace, which showed how the military 
group was above the law of the land. A young 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 13 

officer named Von Foerstner (firstner) ordered his 
soldiers to charge a crowd of men and boys who had 
been jeering at them. They did so, but caught only 
one man, a lame old shoemaker. They brought him 
before the officer, who drew his sword and cut the 
old man across the head. A storm of anger arose 
from many parts of the country where the people 
were beginning to grow restless. It was demanded 
in the Reichstag that Von Foerstner be punished. 
Instead of this the Kaiser moved him to another 
town and gave him a medal. 

The spirit that might makes right ,\ has always 
been characteristic of the Junkers. In 191 1, a Ger- 
man general, named Von Bernhardi, wrote a 
book entitled "Germany and the Next War," in 
which he tells, in the most cold-blooded manner 
imaginable, just why and how Germany must 
attack and destroy all her weaker neighbor nations. 
Considerations of treaties, pledged word, or the 
rules of Christianity do not affect him in the least. 

After her great defeat in 1870, France began to 
think less of leadership in war, and more of building 
up her colonies and her trade with Africa and the 
Indies. She planted settlements and trading sta- 
tions in many parts of Africa and in southeastern 
Asia. This pleased Bismarck and the Germans, 
who felt that as long as the French were kept busy 
with little wars in Africa and Asia they would have 
no time to think of getting even with Germany over 
the taking of Alsace and Lorraine. 



14 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

France marched an army into Tunis in northern 
Africa, and told the people there that they would 
have to let Frenchmen help them run the govern- 
ment. This made Italy angry, for she had been 
planning to do this very thing. As a result of 
this feeling of Italy toward the French, Bismarck was 
able to persuade the Italians to join a league with 
Germany and Austria. Italy agreed to come to 
the help of the other two countries if they were 
attacked by France and Russia together. Years 
afterward it was proved that Bismarck himself had 
urged the French to seize Tunis, hoping that this 
act would make trouble, and possibly war, between 
them and the Italians. 

In 1888 the old Kaiser of Germany died, followed, 
ninety-nine days later, by his son, who had devel- 
oped cancer of the throat from too much smoking, it 
was said. His grandson, the young Kaiser, was a man 
of peculiar and arrogant nature. In a good many ways 
he was astonishingly well educated. He spoke several 
languages, he knew a great deal about history (that is, 
the history of kings and wars) , he could paint fairly 
good pictures, compose music, write books, preach 
sermons, and talk intelligently on a great number of 
subjects. 

Unfortunately, an important part of his train- 
ing had been entirely left out : he had never been 
made to obey ; he had never been taught to consider 
the rights or the feelings of other people; he could 
not bear to be. crossed in anything; he wanted 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 



15 



nobody around him except those who would tell 
him how wise he was and how glorious was his em- 
pire, what a wonderful army he had, etc. 

The old Kaiser, his grandfather, had not been a 
brilliant man. However, he had wit enough to know 
that Bismarck was far shrewder and wiser than he, 
and was content to let 
him run the empire so 
long as the empire pros- 
pered. The young 
Wilhelm, however, 
after two years of quar- 
reling with Bismarck, 
dismissed him with no 
more ceremony than if 
he had been discharging 
a servant whom he had 
caught stealing. There 
were murmurs of regret 
and indignation from 
all over Germany when 
the man who had built 
up the army and the 
world power of the em- 
pire stepped down and 
out, but the group of flatterers around the young 
Kaiser took care that little of this talk reached his 
ears. 

The old Chancellor took it calmly. "Some day 
that young fool will play his hand, play it at the 




Cartoon by Sir John Tenniel 

Dropping the Pilot" 



t6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

wrong time, and ruin himself and his country," said 
he. 

The men who followed Bismarck as chancellor were 
more or less of the "rubber stamp" kind, who took 
orders from their master and, in turn, told the repre- 
sentatives of the people in the Reichstag what they 
might or might not do. 

Meanwhile, Germany prospered. Her population 
increased by thirty millions in forty years. In 1870 
most of her people had been farmers. By 1910 she 
did not raise more than two-thirds of what her people 
ate, so many of her men had become factory- workers. 
Her great gun-factories made rifles and cannon for 
Russia, for Turkey, for Italy, for most of the small 
nations of the world. Her goods were sold all over 
the globe. A great fleet of ships, built in Germany, 
was carrying more and more of the world's produce 
as the years went by. 

With the growth of factories and trade, a new kind 
of Junker came forward, a Junker of the sea. The 
land Junkers could not be satisfied until their army 
had ridden roughshod over every nation of Europe. 
In the same way the leaders of Germany's new navy 
would be satisfied only when, protected by the strong- 
est fleet in the world, they should force England and 
France to give up some of their richest colonies and 
should capture for Germany the trade of the world. 

The leader of this Junker sea-plan was the young 
Kaiser himself. "Our future lies on the water," 
he said, not long after his grandfather's death. 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 17 

He had a canal cut across the neck of the Danish 
peninsula, through Schleswig-Holstein, so that his 
warships could sail from the North Sea into the 
Baltic without ever leaving German waters. 

Germany had started too late in the race for 
colonies. It was not until 1884 that she began to 
acquire land in Africa and to annex islands in the 
sea. The Kaiser resented the fact that France 
and Great Britain had already seized the choice 
parts of the world before Germany began to build 
up her colonial empire. In 191 1, by sending a war- 
ship to Morocco and threatening war, he forced 
France to give up to him a great stretch of land in 
Central Africa which he added to his so-called Cam- 
eroon colony. France was gradually getting more 
and more of Morocco under her control, and this had 
greatly angered the Kaiser and the Junkers. They 
growled and threatened, until, rather than go to war 
about it, the French bought them off. 

The Kaiser's chief helper in his sea-plans was 
Admiral von Tirpitz. Together they planned to 
rule the seas, by building a navy that should be 
stronger even than England's. How they envied 
England ! envied her her rich colonies of Canada, 
South Africa, Australia, and New Zealand; envied 
her the forts at Malta, Gibraltar, Aden, and Hong- 
kong; envied her, above all, the right to rule 
India and Egypt; envied her the ownership of the 
Suez Canal. As Germany's navy grew, it surpassed 
Russia's, Italy's, France's, and that of the United 



i8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

States. It was nearly as large as England's. The Ger- 
man sea Junkers boasted that one day they would sail 
out and crush the British fleet. Their officers were 
always talking about ' ' der Tag ' ' (the day) when this 
would happen. 

In 1895, the Germans, backed by Russia and 
other European powers, had used the threat of their 
fleet to force Japan out of certain rights in China, 
and then two years later had compelled China to give 
these identical rights to Germany. This story will 
be told in full in a later chapter. It is enough for 
us now to note the rough manner in which the two 
eastern nations were handled. In the language of 
the Kaiser, "the mailed fist" of the German empire 
had been shaken in their faces. 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why was the outbreak of the World War such a surprise to 
Americans ? 

2. How could the Kaiser prevent laws from being passed? 

3. What was the chief difference between the Chancellor of Ger- 
many and a Prime Minister in any other country ? 

4. How did the Prussian election system keep the power in the 
hands of the Junkers ? 

5. How did Prussia grow to be a powerful nation? 

6. How did the Prussian military system force Europe to train all 
its young men for war ? 

7. Compare the revolution of 1848 in France with that of Ger- 
many in the same year. 

8. How did Bismarck become successful? 

9. What changed the feelings of the German people toward Bis- 
marck ? 



THE JUNKERS AND THEIR LEADER 19 

10. What was shown by the Zabern affair? 

11. How did Bismarck induce Italy to join the "Triple Alli- 
ance" with Germany and Austria? 

12. What was the chief fault with the young Kaiser's training? 

13. Why was the German navy so greatly increased? 



CHAPTER II 
The Middle-Europe Scheme 

Germany's late start in the race for colonies. — The trade of Turkey. 

— The Kaiser and the Sultan. — The Berlin to Bagdad railway. 

— Designs on Egypt, India, and the Caspian oil fields. — Serbia, 
Bulgaria, and Roumania. — The peoples within the Austrian 
empire. — One hundred and fifty million subjects. — Centers 
of discontent. — The harbor of the Sheik of Koweit. — The four 
little nations against Turkey. — German and Austrian inter- 
ference brings on the Second Balkan War. — A settlement most 
displeasing to Berlin and Vienna. — Junker plans for war. — 
The murder of the Austrian heir. — Two birds with one stone. 

Bismarck had scorned the idea of colonies. In 
fact, he had rather rejoiced to see France annexing 
so much land in Africa, thinking that it would cause 
her a great deal of worry and trouble. The Ger- 
mans had been so busy building up their new empire 
and their factory system that they paid little atten- 
tion to Africa and the islands of the Pacific until 
the best places for colonies had all been annexed 
by Great Britain, France, Holland, Belgium, and 
Portugal. Waking up at last, Germany had franti- 
cally seized the few remaining parts of Africa, and 
had planted her flag upon a few islands in the Pacific. 
These colonies did not prove profitable, however. 
The country, in most cases, was so poor and the 
natives had so little to trade, that it cost Germany 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 21 

more to run her colonial governments than the 
colonies paid into the treasury. 

The countries that promised greatest profits from 
trade, with control from Europe, were the less highly 
civilized nations, like China, Turkey, Persia, Egypt. 
Algeria, and Morocco. But China was too far 
away, although Germany had a foothold there, 
with a ninety-nine year lease on the Kiaochow 
(kyow-chow) peninsula. Then, too, Japan and 
Russia, because of their nearness, were better able 
than Germany to get the lion's share of the Chinese 
trade. Great Britain, too, had Hongkong and 
Weihaiwei (wa-hi-wa), Chinese ports, and the 
United States was trying to influence the European 
nations to keep the whole of China open to the trade 
of all nations. India and Egypt, with the Suez 
Canal, were under the rule of Great Britain, and 
Germany cursed her own slowness in not getting hold 
of Egypt before the British had done so. Algeria 
was French, and it seemed almost impossible to keep 
the neighboring country of Morocco from becoming 
French, too. 

Persia was bounded on the north by Russian 
lands, and on the east by countries where the British 
were obtaining more and more power. It seemed 
impossible to keep the trade of Persia from going 
to these two countries. 

There remained Turkey; and the Germans com- 
menced a regular campaign to capture the trade of 
the Ottoman empire. 



22 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

It began in 1898 with a visit to Constantinople by- 
Kaiser Wilhelm himself. He embraced and kissed 
in public the villainous old Sultan, the man who a 
few years ago had murdered in cold blood hundreds 
of thousands of Armenians, simply because they were 
Christians. He called the Sultan ' ' brother ' ' and gave 
him costly presents. He visited the Holy Land, 
but was so respectful to the Mohammedans that it 
was reported among them that he had secretly been 
converted to their religion. Of course, all this greatly 
delighted and flattered the Sultan. Two or three 
times the Russians had been on the point of driving 
the Turk out of Constantinople and out of Europe, but 
each time England, fearing that Russia would then 
become too powerful, had stepped in and saved Turkey. 
But after the bloody Armenian massacres and the 
savage treatment of the Christians on the island 
of Crete, even England no longer felt any friendship 
for the Sultan. In fact, Mr. Gladstone, the former 
Prime Minister of England, had publicly called him 
a bloody assassin. 

So the Kaiser appeared to be a friend in need. 
Soon after his visit the world heard that the Sultan's 
government had given permission to a company of 
Germans to build a railroad across Asia Minor to the 
Euphrates River, and down the valley of Meso- 
potamia to the ancient city of Bagdad and to the 
Persian Gulf. 

This road, by connecting with roads already 
built from Constantinople to Belgrade, to Buda- 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 23 

pest, to Vienna, to Prague, to Berlin, and to Ham- 
burg, would give Germany and her friends a much 
shorter road to the East than had other countries, 
who sent their goods by boat through the Suez 
Canal. A train travels twice as swiftly as a boat. 
A cargo of goods from India or Persia could get to 
Hamburg in six or seven days over the railroad 
while it would take ten or twelve to get them to Lon- 
don by ship. It looked as though the Turk, who had 
cut the trade routes to the East in the time of Colum- 
bus, would now help the Germans to build them up 
again, with great profit to both nations. 

The more the Germans studied the plan of the 
Berlin to Bagdad railroad, the bigger and more 
promising the scheme seemed. One branch could 
run down through Syria to Egypt. Egypt, legally, 
was part of the Turkish empire anyhow, they argued, 
and the English had no business there. Let the Ger- 
man railroad reach there and German traders get a 
foothold — soon the English dream would vanish, and 
Germany would be the nation to get the rich Egyp- 
tian trade. Once at Bagdad and on the Persian 
Gulf, it would be easy to win from Russia and Eng- 
land the trade of Persia. From Persia it was only a 
step over to India, which, as all the world knew, was 
full of hatred for its English rulers and seething 
with revolt. A little help from Germany, some 
* Krupp guns and Mauser rifles — a few German- 

* Krupp (Kroop) founded the great German gun-works at Essen, Prus- 
sia. Paul Mauser was a German who invented a repeating rifle. 



24 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

trained generals to lead them, and India would rise 
and free itself. Its people would only change mas- 
ters, however, for in their gratitude they would let in 
the Germans, and the Germans, once in, would 
know better than to be tricked as the English had 
been. 

With Turkey thoroughly under German control, 
it would be easy to help the Turks to get the rich 
Caspian oil fields away from Russia. 

So ran the dream. What were the chances of 
success? What were the obstacles in the way? 

In the first place there must be a thorough control 
of Turkey. German money must be lent, German 
guns must be sold, German generals must train the 
Turkish army. The Sultan must be made to feel 
that Germany was his only friend. He must be 
surrounded by German advisers, men trusted by 
the Kaiser. 

Then with Turkey well in hand, the smaller na- 
tions through which the road would pass must be 
mastered also. Bulgaria had a German king. So 
had Roumania. Both might be won over to friend- 
ship and induced to sign treaties giving all their 
trade to Austria and Germany. Both nations had 
reason to be afraid that Russia, which had been 
anxious for years to take Constantinople, would 
swallow them up on the way. Austria was Ger- 
many's faithful friend — in fact, more than a friend, 
almost a servant. The diplomats at Vienna danced 
when the Kaiser piped. 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 25 

There remained only Serbia, and Serbia was 
a small, weak state and could easily be crushed. 
It was useless to try to make friends with her. She 
hated Austria, who had ruled millions of Serbs before 
1908 and had crushed Serbian hopes of annexing 
Bosnia and Herzegovina (har-tse go vi'na) by taking 
these states by force herself. 

But it was not absolutely necessary to build the 
railroad over the shortest route, through Serbia and 
Bulgaria. There was a narrow strip of country, 
between Serbia and Montenegro, called the Sanjak 
(san jak') of Novibazar (no'vi ba zar'), which was 
part of Turkey. At its northwest end it touched 
Bosnia and Herzegovina, which now were part of 
the Austrian empire. By planning a new route 
for the railroad, through the towns of Sarajevo 
(sa/ra ya/vo) , Novibazar, and Uskub, it would be 
possible to keep it wholly on German, Austrian, and 
Turkish soil. 

The Austrian empire was a mixture of different 
peoples. Poles, Russians, Roumanians, Italians, 
Serbs, and the related peoples, the Croats and 
Slovenians who were under the Austrian rule, 
wished earnestly to break away from the dual mon- 
archy and join the people of their own blood in the 
countries round about. 

There was a time when there had been a strong 
kingdom of Serbia, but (except for the little country 
of Montenegro) it had been conquered and extin- 
guished by the Turks, who pushed on and conquered 



26 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Croats and Hungarians too. Serbs and Croats 
had been cruelly persecuted by the Turks, and they 
rejoiced when the Hapsburg family, rulers of Austria, 
had gradually driven out the Mohammedans and 
joined the liberated peoples to Austria. But the 
unfortunate Serbo- Croats soon found that they had 
only exchanged masters. The Austrians ruled them 
just about as harshly as had the Turks, and gave 
them no more freedom. 

Within the Austrian empire were other small 
nations. In the north were the Bohemians, who 
call themselves Czechs (cheks), and the Slovaks 
(slo vaks') , who like the Croats and Serbs are closely 
related peoples. In the central plains, around the 
rivers Danube and Theiss (tice) lived the Hunga- 
rians, or as they call themselves, Magyars (mod'yors). 
The Magyars were fighters, who kept demanding 
their rights, and after two or three unsuccessful wars 
with Austria, or rather revolts against the Austrian 
rule, they were able, in 1867, to force the Hapsburg 
Emperor to give them equal rights with the Austrians. 

The real Austrians were Germans, of the same 
blood as the people of Germany, and speaking the 
same language. Yet, out of the fifty-two million peo- 
ple in the empire, only nine million were Austro- 
Germans. The Hungarians numbered some ten 
million people, so that the other peoples in the 
Empire outnumbered the Germans and Magyars 
combined, by over twelve millions. Nevertheless, 
the two ruling peoples (Germans and Magyars) 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 



27 



owned nearly all the property, held all the offices, 
elected practically all the law-makers, ruled the army, 
controlled the schools and courts, and did their best 



,r^^\. 



mnilllnii^^hk- 




Czechs and 
Slovaks 



Magyars and\ „ 

Szecklers \ ^^arxans 



Serbs, Croats 1 ^ ^ p— | Ruthenians 
and Slovenians J RSSSSSysH ( Ukrainians) , 



Roumanians 



Racial Map of Austria-Hungary 



to force everybody in the country to speak no lan- 
guage but German or Hungarian. 

The Roumanians, Russians, Poles, Croats, Serbs, 
Slovaks, etc., did the hard work and were paid little 



2$ HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

money and given very few rights. They were little 
better than serfs. 

The same condition existed in the Turkish empire. 
The great majority of the people in Turkey in Eu- 
rope, as it was before 191 2, was not made up of 
Turks, but of Serbs, Bulgars, Greeks, Albanians, and 
Spanish Jews. 

Turkey in Asia was made up of Greeks, Armenians, 
Kurds, Syrians, Jews, and Arabs, besides the Turks, 
who were the ruling class and held most of the gov- 
ernment positions. 

The Middle-Europe plan, as worked out in Berlin, 
provided for an oligarchy (rule of the few) over one 
hundred and fifty millions of people : 

Germany 68,000,000 

Austria- Hungary 52,000,000 

Serbia 3,500,000 

Bulgaria 5,500,000 

Turkey 21,000,000 

The little crowd of Junkers could control Germany. 
Germany had made herself more and more dictator 
of Austria. Turkey would be won over and con- 
trolled in the same way. Bulgaria, too, could be 
won over. A short, sharp war would crush Serbia, 
whose lands would then be divided between Aus- 
tria, Bulgaria, and Turkey. 

But there were two or three things which threat- 
ened to spoil the plan. To begin with, a great 
many of the subjects of these countries were far from 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 29 

satisfied with their rulers. In Germany there were 
a million Danes, living in Schleswig, four or five 
million Poles in the eastern districts, and a million 
and a half people in Alsace and Lorraine, the counties 
torn from France in 1871. All these were anxious 
to be free from the rule of Berlin. Then, as has 
been said, out of the fifty-two million in Austria- 
Hungary fewer than twenty million belonged to the 
ruling German and Magyar nations. The other 
thirty- two million were anything but satisfied. 
Many of the Germans, both in Austria and Germany 
itself, were Socialists, who were very much dissatisfied 
with the rule of the Junkers. 

Turkey was full of discontented peoples, both in 
Europe and in Asia. The Arabs of the eastern 
coast of the Red Sea were impatient of the rule of 
the Turks and needed only a little encouragement to 
revolt. The greater part of Arabia, however, was 
ruled by chiefs who were not troubled by the Turks. 
Turkey claimed dominion over them, but as an 
actual fact could not control them, so that they were 
really independent rulers. 

An incident which happened about six years before 
the great war made the Germans furiously angry with 
England. One of the main objects in building the 
Hamburg-Berlin-Bagdad-Persian Gulf railroad was to 
capture the trade of India and induce this country 
to revolt from British rule. The Germans seemed to 
think that they could keep the knowledge of this 
part of the plan from the British. 



3 o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

While they were busy building the road and plan- 
ning for a terminal on the Persian Gulf, a far-seeing 
Englishman learned that there was only one good 
harbor for big ships at the head of the gulf and that 
this belonged to the Sheik of Koweit (ko wat') . 
This Sheik was one of the Arab chieftains who were 
practically independent of the Turks and had the 
power to make agreements with foreign countries 
without asking permission of the government at Con- 
stantinople. Accordingly, this Englishman quietly 
slipped up from India to call on the Sheik of Koweit, 
and obtained from him a long lease of the harbor and 
all the land adjoining it in the name of Great Britain. 
Not long afterwards the Germans, who had taken 
it for granted that Koweit was a Turkish town and 
under the control of the Sultan, found out that 
they would have to get permission from the Sheik 
to build the docks, wharves, and railway terminals 
that were necessary for the Indian trade. They 
hurriedly called upon him, only to learn that they 
were too late. They stormed and threatened, but 
without result. They offered large sums — he would 
not listen to them. The word of an Arab was sacred, 
a treaty signed by him was something more than 
"a scrap of paper." 

Then their fury burst forth against England. 
For the Germans to slip in and cajole the Turks 
into letting them build a railroad which would steal 
away the trade of India from England, — that was 
a good joke on the English. But for the English to 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 31 

slip in and steal the only deep-water harbor that the 
Germans could use — that was an underhand and 
contemptible trick ! An attempt was made to send 
Turkish troops to sieze Koweit ; but the Sheik ap- 
pealed to the British. A battleship appeared off the 
town, and the Turks decided that they wouldn't 
try to seize the harbor, after all. 

Other events kept happening to disturb the peace 
of mind of the Junkers who planned to rule Middle- 
Europe along the line of the Berlin to Bagdad rail- 
way. 

All the peoples of the Balkan countries— Serbs, 
Bulgars, Albanians, Roumanians, and Greeks had 
hated the Turks for centuries. But they had hated 
each other almost as much, and the Turks, by keep- 
ing them separated, had been able to rule them. 

In 1 91 2, however, Turkish treatment of the Chris- 
tians grew so outrageous that the Russians and 
Prime Minister Venizelos of Greece were able to 
persuade four little countries to forget their old-time 
quarrels and make war- jointly on Turkey. These 
allies were Greece, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and Serbia. 
Roumania did not join in the war, but she was 
friendly to the other Christian nations. 

Austria and Germany were well pleased. The 
Junkers figured that the Turkish armies, fitted out 
with German guns and drilled by German officers, 
would make short work of the four little countries. 
If Turkey conquered Serbia and Bulgaria so much 
the better. The path to the East would be greatly 



32 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

cleared by wiping out some of these troublesome 
peoples. 

But to the intense disgust of Germany and Austria 
the armies of the four little allies flung back the 
desperately resisting Turks all along the line. The 
Turks were hustled back into forts and strongholds, 
where, one by one, their armies were starved out 
and forced to surrender. The victory was astonish- 
ing — greater than the little allies had ever dared 
to hope. 

To the victor belong the spoils. They began 
promptly to divide up the lands of their fallen foe. 
Montenegro and Serbia each took half of the Sanjak 
of Novibazar, and. presto I the path of the railroad 
to the East could no longer pass from Austrian soil to 
Turkish. Then once more appeared the "mailed fist." 

Austria, backed by Germany and Italy, protested 
against the extension of Serbia to the Adriatic Sea. 
If this took place and Serbia got a seaport, she 
would be free to trade with all the nations of the 
earth. In the past all her trade had gone to 
Austria. Austrians paid Serb farmers just what 
they pleased for their hogs, and the Serbians had to 
take what was offered, for they could ship only over 
the Berlin-Vienna-Constantinople railway. There 
was no use shipping the hogs in the other direction, 
for the Mohammedans consider the pig an unclean 
animal and will not eat his flesh. 

Serbia appealed to Russia, but with the " mailed 
fist" in his face, the Tzar would do nothing. It 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 33 

meant war with Germany, Austria, and Italy if he 
took Serbia's part. 

So the Junkers marked off the mountainous 
western coast, called it Albania, and sent a Junker 
princeling to rule over it, without so much as saying 
"By your leave" to the people who lived there. 

Then Serbia, cheated out of her seaport, sought 
land in Macedonia that Bulgaria considered hers, 
and with the Junkers of Austria and Germany 
backing her and urging her on, Bulgaria made a 
treacherous attack on the Serbs and Greeks which 
started the Second Balkan War. Again the Junkers 
made a mistake and " backed the wrong horse." 
They had expected Bulgaria to win the war easily, 
and by helping her they counted on making her 
a lasting friend, who would join in the Middle -Europe 
scheme. By conquering Serbia, Bulgaria would help 
clear the path of the Berlin to Bagdad railway of 
this troublesome little nation. 

But Serbians and Greeks fought like demons, 
enraged at the treachery of the Bulgars, and to the 
great astonishment and disgust of the Germans and 
Austrians, the war ended quickly in a crushing defeat 
for their new-found friends. Roumania came in at 
the last, taking the side of Serbia and Greece. The 
King of Bulgaria found himself without friends in 
that part of the world, and wished, when it was too 
late, that instead of attacking Serbia, as the Germans 
and Austrians had urged him to do, he had listened 
to the Russians. They had begged him to be rea- 



34 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

sonable and give up to Serbia a fair part of the lands 
taken away from Turkey. 

The treaty of peace was signed at Bukarest, 
Roumania, in July, 1913. It was most unsatis- 
factory to Austria and Germany. Their best friend, 
Turkey, had been beaten in the first war and had 
lost almost all her lands in Europe. Their other 
friend, Bulgaria, had received a severe trouncing 
and had been forced to give up part of her northern 
boundary to Roumania and let Serbia and Greece 
divide Macedonia between them. Serbia, the one 
nation that they had wished to see crushed, had 
come out of both wars victorious, with her territory 
almost doubled in size. 

Mr. Jonescu (jo nes'cu), one of the leading Rou- 
manian statesmen, prophesied that a new war would 
break out within fourteen months. He could see that 
Austria and Germany were not going to leave things 
as they were. 

As a matter of fact, the Austrians were eager to 
attack Serbia immediately and crush her once for all. 
The Italians, however, notified Austria that they 
would frown on any such plan at this time. They did 
not wish to see the Austrians annex any more lands on 
the eastern side of the Adriatic. Italy had always 
planned to capture the harbors of Durazzo (du rat/ so) 
and Avlona (avlo'na) for herself. Then, again, the 
Germans thought that the attack on Serbia would 
bring Russia, and possibly France, in on the side of 
Serbia. France and Russia had an agreement by 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 35 

which they had promised to go to each other's help 
if one of them should be attacked by two nations 
at once. 

The Junkers were planning for a great war in which 
they should throw their whole army on France first 
and then return in time to defeat the slow-moving 
Russians, but they were not quite ready for it yet. 
They wanted time to make a few more big guns, to 
store away an immense amount of shells, and to lay 
by enough food to last till the next harvest time. Then, 
too, the Kiel Canal was being enlarged. The war- 
ships most recently built were so large that they 
could not pass through it, and the work of widening 
the canal would not be finished until June, 1914. 

German and Austrian diplomats, hoping to build 
up strong friendships in Bulgaria and Turkey, had 
failed. Instead, they saw a barrier of little states, 
mostly Slavic and hence friendly to Russia, extend- 
ing across the line of the road to Bagdad. Now 
they proposed to use force to do what diplomacy 
had failed to bring about. In the spring of 19 14 
Marquis Pallavicini (pal'la vi chi'ni) , the Austrian 
Ambassador to Turkey, told Mr. Morgenthau, the 
American Ambassador, that a great European war 
would soon break out, because the terms of the 
treaty of Bukarest were so unsatisfactory to Austria 
and Germany. 

The empire of Austria, as you have been told, was 
governed by Germans and Hungarians (Magyars). 
Over half of its inhabitants (Poles, Ruthenians, 



36 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Slovenians, and Croats) 
belonged to the Slavic branch of the white race, 
speaking languages similar to the Russian. These 
Slavs had been fighting for a long time for a share in 
the government. They wanted the empire divided 
into three parts instead of two, one of the three to 
consist of the Slavic countries. 

The old Emperor, Franz Josef, who had been 
reigning since 1848, could not last very much longer, 
that was plain. His children were dead, and the 
heir to the throne, his nephew, the Archduke Franz 
Ferdinand, was a man who was very unpopular. 

He was arrogant and headstrong — a true Junker. 
He was greatly disliked in Serbia, for he wanted to 
put down forcibly all the movements among the 
Serbs and Croats in Bosnia to break away from Aus- 
tria and annex themselves to Serbia. But he was 
especially hateful to the other Junkers, both Aus- 
trian and Magyar, who really were the rulers of the 
empire, and the tools of the Kaiser at Berlin. His 
wife was a Czech, and as she was not of royal blood 
it had been voted by the Austrian Congress that none 
of her children could follow their father on the throne. 

However, she was an ambitious woman, and the 
little crowd of Junkers were afraid that she would 
persuade her husband, when once he became Em- 
peror, to divide the empire into three parts and 
give the Czechs and other Slavs equal rights with 
the Austrians and Hungarians. 

In June, 1914, the Archduke took a headstrong 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 37 

notion to visit Sarajevo in Bosnia, to see if he could 
help to suppress the anti-Austrian and pro-Serbian 
riots that had been breaking out there. 

The Serbian government sent word to him advis- 
ing him not to go. He paid no attention, but went. 
There was a deep-laid plot to kill him. A bomb 
was hurled at his carriage in the morning, but it fell 
short. In the afternoon, as he was out with his 
wife in an automobile, the chauffeur deliberately 
drove the machine to the wrong side of the street 
and stopped where a Bosnian young man was stand- 
ing. The young man, raising a pistol, killed first 
the Archduke and then his wife. 

There is no proof that this murder was plotted in 
Vienna, but there is strong suspicion. Germany 
and Austria-Hungary were all ready for the big 
war ; the Kiel Canal was finished, the new submarine 
boats and the big guns that were to crush the French 
and Russian forts were completed, an enormous 
supply of shells and other ammunition had been 
manufactured. All that was needed was an excuse 
for attacking Serbia. Russia was bound to step 
in to protect this small Slavic sister state — and 
then the mailed fist would strike. Franz Ferdinand 
was hateful to the crowd of Junkers at Vienna. 
Would it not be a stroke of genius to kill two birds 
with one stone — get him out of the way and provide 
the needed excuse for the attack on Serbia ? That 
all this was planned cannot be proved, but a great 
many facts seem to confirm the belief. 



38 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

In the first place there seems now to be no doubt 
that the government police at Sarajevo were in 
the plot. Their only part in the events of the day 
was to arrest the assassin and protect him from 
the people. Again it is plain that the assassin knew 
a secret that was supposed to be known only to 
the members of the court circle at Vienna : Franz 
Ferdinand always wore a thick silk garment that 
was woven on the fashion of the inner fabric of an 
automobile tire. No bullet would go through it. 
The murderer did not aim at his body, but fired 
straight at his neck. 

In the third place, the assassin, not satisfied with 
killing the Archduke, murdered his wife also. The 
Duchess was very popular with the common people 
and especially with the Slavs, her own race. On 
the other hand she was cordially hated by the 
Junkers at Vienna and Budapest. They wanted 
her out of the way as much as they did her husband. 
A fourth point was the behavior of the court at the 
time of the funeral. A great majority of the mili- 
tary group openly gloated over the fact that Franz 
Ferdinand was dead. Again, it seems strange that 
the murderer was never put to death. He was 
merely imprisoned for three years, at the end of which 
time he caught influenza and died. 

However, whether or not the murder of the Arch- 
duke was encouraged by the Hungarian or Austrian 
Junkers really does not matter. The great war had 
been planned for the summer of 1914, and another 



THE MIDDLE-EUROPE SCHEME 39 

excuse for beginning it would easily have been 
found. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why did Germany let other nations beat her in the race for 
colonies ? 

2. Why was Germany driven to seek the trade of Turkey? 

3. What was the result of the visit of the Kaiser to the Sultan? 

4. What were the great advantages of the Berlin to Bagdad railway ? 

5. What small countries barred Germany's road to the East? 

6. How had the Serbs and Croats lost their independence ? 

7. Which were the two ruling races in Austria-Hungary and which 
the subject peoples? 

8. What dissatisfied peoples were to be found in Germany? 

9. What was the result of the Koweit incident? 

10. In what way did the union of the four little Balkan countries 
against Turkey upset the German plans? 

11. How were the German- Austrian plans defeated also in the 
Second Balkan War ? 

12. Why did the Junkers wait till 1914 before starting the World 
War? 

13. Why is it suspected that the Austrian Junkers had a hand in 
the plot to kill the Archduke? 



CHAPTER III 
The Blow 

A lull to disarm suspicion. — Springing the trap. — Impossible de- 
mands are almost met. — The wolf and the lamb. — Germany turns 
a deaf ear to peace proposals. — Austria attacks Serbia. — Sazonoff 
and Grey. — What Germany really planned. — What she expected 
in Belgium. — How France was to be put out of the fight. — 
The method of dealing with Russia. — Great Britain next. — A 
piratical plan. — Italy and England. — The threat of the "jehad." 
— Sounding out the British. — As Austria is about to weaken, 
Germany strikes. — France refuses to be trapped. — Promises 
to the troops and to the manufacturers. — A weak attempt to 
hold the friendship of neutrals. 

The Archduke of Austria was murdered by an 
Austrian subject, in an Austrian city, on the 28th 
of June, 1 9 14. 

For nearly four weeks there was no hint of trouble. 
The Kaiser was touring in his steam yacht among 
the fiords of Norway. The President of France 
and his Prime Minister were paying a friendly visit 
to St. Petersburg (now called Petrograd). Most of 
the diplomats and foreign ministers were taking vaca- 
tions. The Austrian government had let the news 
leak out that they would not be harsh in their deal- 
ings with Serbia over the murder. The murderer 
and two of his helpers (all Austrian citizens) had been 

arrested and would be tried in about six months. The 

40 



THE BLOW 41 

incident was no longer mentioned on the first page 
of the newspapers. 

Then, like lightning out of a clear sky, the Aus- 
trian Minister to Serbia called at the office of the 
Serbian Minister of Foreign Affairs at six o'clock in 
the evening of July 2$ and left a note such as no 
government had ever before addressed to that of an- 
other independent nation. 

It demanded an answer within forty-eight hours 
— otherwise war would be declared at once. The 
delivery of the note was so timed that nearly a day 
was gone before the Serbian Cabinet could get to- 
gether and hear it read, for at six o'clock at night 
the officials had all gone home. That gave them only 
one day in which to telegraph to Russia, England, 
and France, to get answers, and to frame the reply. 
The ' ' mailed fist ' ' at work again ! The answers 
came back from Russia and France : ' ' Give in ; 
yield everything that you honorably can. They 
are trying to pick a quarrel : don't let them have an 
excuse on which to start it." 

Meanwhile the ministers and cabinet officers of 
other countries, appalled at the vision of a terrible 
European war, in frantic haste telegraphed their 
ambassadors at Vienna to see the Austrian Foreign 
Minister and get him to give Serbia more time for 
her reply. The ambassadors wired back that Count 
von Berchtold (bairkh'told), who was the only man 
that could extend the time limit, had gone to a 
summer resort and would not be back for two days. 



42 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Two days — and Austria would have already bom- 
barded Belgrade and thrown her army across the 
Danube ! 

France and England appealed to Germany, Aus- 
tria's partner, without whose help Austria would 
never dare quarrel with the Tzar. The German 
Foreign Office said that Germany knew nothing about 
Austria's plans, but that the nations could trust 
her ally to do the right thing. Meanwhile nobody 
must interfere between Austria and Serbia. In 
the same breath with which the Germans denied 
that they knew how severe the Austrian note was, 
they calmly told the other nations that of course 
Austria's demands from Serbia were justified (How 
did Germany know this if she was ignorant of what 
the note said ?) but would probably be refused (Why 
refused, if they were fair and justified?) and that if 
any nation tried to come between Austria and Serbia 
the results "would be impossible to measure." In 
other words : "Hands off ! If not, war ! " Again the 
mailed fist ! 

Prince Bismarck once said that "a liar should 
have a good memory." The German diplomats 
forgot the lies that they had agreed to tell, all alike. 
They mixed their stories and betrayed themselves. 
Three or four of them let it slip that they had known 
beforehand all about the Austrian note to Serbia, 
and had approved of it. 

To all appeals from England, Italy, and France 
that Germany ask Austria to give more time to 



THE BLOW 43 

Serbia to reply to the note, the German Foreign 
Office turned a deaf ear. It was nobody's affair 
but Austria's ; Austria and Serbia must be left to 
fight it out. A nation of 52,000,000 against a little 
country of 4,000,000, exhausted, by two recent wars ! 
And Germany knew that Russia had notified the 
nations that Serbia would not be left without a 
friend. 

At 5 : 45 o'clock on the evening of July 25, the 
Serbian Foreign Minister handed the Austrian Min- 
ister at Belgrade the Serbian answer. 

The Austrian note demanded (1) that the Serbian 
government stop the publication of any newspaper 
or magazine in Serbia that printed anything showing 
" hatred and contempt of the Austro-Hungarian 
monarchy." Serbia agreed to this, although it 
would compel her to repeal her laws providing for 
free speech and free press. 

The Austrian note demanded (2) that Serbia put 
out of existence the secret society called Narodna 
Odbrana (na rod'na od bra'na) , seize its property, and 
dissolve any other society that had worked against 
the interests of Austria- Hungary. Serbia agreed to 
do this. 

The note demanded (3) that the Serbian govern- 
ment "eliminate" from all the Serbian schools any 
teaching that would show Austria-Hungary in an 
unfavorable light. Serbia agreed to do this. 

The note demanded (4) that Serbia dismiss from 
its army and from its government all officers and 



44 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

officials that had been working to stir up trouble 
for Austria- Hungary, the list of names to be furnished 
later. 

Serbia agreed to this, simply saying that they 
must first have a fair trial. 

The note demanded (5) that Serbia accept the 
cooperation in Serbia of Austro-Hungarian officials 
in putting down the agitation against the Dual 
Monarchy. 

Serbia claimed that she did not clearly understand 
what was meant here, but she would "permit such 
cooperation " as would be proper in international law. 

The note demanded (6) that Serbia arrest and 
punish all those who were then in Serbia who had had 
a hand in the plot to kill the Archduke, and added 
that Austrian officials would take part in these trials. 

Serbia promised to do this, but called attention 
to the fact that her laws would not allow Austrian 
officials to take part in Serbian court trials. How- 
ever, she agreed to keep Austria informed of every- 
thing that went on at the trials. 

The note demanded (7) that Serbia immediately 
arrest two men, who were named, one a major in 
the Serbian army. Serbia answered that the major 
had been arrested and that the other man would soon 
be caught. 

The note made five other smaller demands, to all 
of which Serbia agreed. 

The note demanded that the Serbian government 
publish on the front page of its "Official Journal' ' 



THE BLOW 45 

the following : ' ' The Royal Government of Serbia 
condemns the propaganda directed against Austria- 
Hungary . . . and it sincerely deplores the fatal con- 
sequence of these criminal proceedings." 

In other words Serbia was to stand up before the 
world, confess that she had plotted the murder of 
the Archduke and was sorry for it. 

Serbia agreed to do this, changing only one word : 
"condemns all propaganda," instead of "the propa- 
ganda." 

Never in the history of the world had an inde- 
pendent nation so humbled itself in the interests 
of peace. The Serbian answer ended by saying that 
if anything in the reply was not satisfactory, Serbia 
would be glad to lay the matter before the inter- 
national court at the Hague or before a court com- 
posed of men from the great nations of Europe. 

In just three-quarters of an hour from the time 
when the reply was handed to him, the Austrian 
Minister notified the Serbian government that he 
had orders to leave Belgrade and break off all rela- 
tions between Serbia and Austria-Hungary if a satis- 
factory reply were not received by six o'clock. The 
reply handed in, he said, was not satisfactory, so he 
was leaving. Hereafter, Austria-Hungary would talk 
to Serbia only through her cannon. 

There had hardly been time for a copy of the Ser- 
bian answer to be written out, much less telegraphed 
to Vienna and considered there. The only way 
that the action of the Austrian Minister can be ex- 



46 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

plained is that Austria knew that Serbia could not 
accept the fifth and sixth demands : (that Austrian 
officers should investigate and try Serbian govern- 
ment employees in Serbian courts). Knowing this, 
and expecting an indignant refusal of the whole note, 
the Austrian Minister had been instructed to make 
a pretense of reading through the answer and then 
to announce that it was very unsatisfactory. 

The humble, yielding tone of the Serbian answer 
quite knocked the props out from under the Austrian 
war platform. For the next two or three days 
Austria and Germany were kept busy explaining 
to the various governments of Europe that the 
Serbian answer was rejected because it was "insin- 
cere." In other words, it was so near to being ex- 
actly what Austria demanded that of course Serbia 
couldn't mean it ! 

On the next day, July 26, the Austrian army was 
"mobilized." This means that all men of certain 
ages dropped their work and reported to various 
central places where they were fitted with uniforms, 
weapons, etc., and were held ready at a moment's 
notice to get on board trains for the front. 

Meanwhile the Russian bear was growling threat- 
eningly. The Russian people had never been fond 
of Austria, and this bullying of the little kindred 
nation of Serbia raised their anger to the boiling point. 

The French diplomats, scenting trouble from 
afar, worked earnestly, begging the Austrians to 
be reasonable, and urging Germany to request Aus- 



THE BLOW 47 

tria to grant Serbia more time before going to war. 
Sir Edward Grey, the British Foreign Minister, la- 
bored hard for peace. 

He proposed that the quarrel be laid before a 
court composed of Italy and Germany, friends and 
allies of Austria, and France and England, friends 
of Russia. Italy and France agreed to this; Ger- 
many refused, point blank. 

One word from Germany to Austria, asking her 
to wait, would have stopped the whole trouble, but 
that word never came. Germany and Austria had 
determined on war. The newspapers in Austria 
and Germany were not allowed, by the government, 
to publish the reply of Serbia, for fear that the people 
of these countries would discover how completely 
Serbia had yielded. They were simply told that the 
reply was unsatisfactory. The people in Vienna sang 
and cheered. The prospect of punishing Serbia 
quite appealed to them. The people of Berlin 
mobbed the houses of the Russian and Serbian 
ambassadors. 

On the 28th, her army all ready to strike, Austria 
declared that she was at war with Serbia. She began 
bombarding Belgrade, and flung her army into Ser- 
bian territory. As it was seen that the whole Aus- 
trian army was in motion, Russia began to fear that 
Austria was going gunning for bigger game than 
little Serbia, so she, too, began to gather in the 
fighting men from her southern countries. 

Meanwhile there were clear-headed men who saw 



48 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

plainly the war that was threatening and worked 
hard to head it off. Chief among these was the 
Russian, Sergius Sazonoff (sazo'noff). He had 
known that Germany was eager for a fight. She 
had been kept from declaring war on France and 
Russia in 1 9 1 1 by only two things : first because 
the great banking house of Rothschild, with branches 
all over Europe, had moved so much gold out of 
Germany that there was not enough ready money in 
the banks to pay the expenses of mobilization, and 
second because Lloyd George of England had given 
warning that Great Britain considered France's quar- 
rel just, and would back her to the last man. 

Remembering the result, — that Germany backed 
down then, Sazonoff vainly tried to get Sir Edward 
Grey to state, positively, that Great Britain would 
not be an onlooker if Germany attacked France now. 
Germany was counting on Great Britain's keeping out 
of the quarrel, this time ; the reckoning with her was 
to come after France and Russia had been sub- 
dued. But Sir Edward Grey could not promise that 
Great Britain would take a hand. Great Britain is 
a country where public opinion is ruler, and where 
the government cannot order the newspapers to 
print only what it wishes the people to believe. 

In 191 1, the British people were indignant over 
Germany's bullying attitude toward France. In 
191 4, they did not know much about Serbia and her 
troubles, and they did not see that the matter con- 
cerned them at all. So, although Sir Edward 



THE BLOW 4Q 

worked hard, harder than any other man in Europe, 
to fend off the war, he could not promise Sazonoff 
that Great Britain would join Russia and France 
in case of an attack by Germany. 

At this point let us stop to look behind the scenes. 
Let us state the facts .as we learned them, five 
years later. Austria, backed by Germany, had 
determined to crush Serbia utterly, and stop, thereby, 
the unrest among her Serb and Croat subjects, who 
were constantly wishing to be annexed to the Ser- 
bian nation. She would leave no Serbia to annex 
them. Austria believed that if Germany's mailed 
fist were thrust in front of Russia, Russia would 
back down, as she had in 1909. There were labor 
troubles in Russia, and strikes and riots in her cities. 
Revolution was in the air, and the Russian govern- 
ment, Germany thought, would hesitate to enter a war. 

Germany, on the other hand, filled with the 
idea that she was the greatest nation in the world, 
and that it was her mission in life to send efficient 
Germans to rule ' ' decayed France ' ' and ' ' barbarous 
Russia" with the superior methods of the Germanic 
Kultur (civilization), was tingling to draw the sword 
that had so long been rattling in its scabbard . 

Everything was ready. In the fall of 191 3 the 
standing army had been increased by 150,000 men. 
The enlarged Kiel Canal was opened on July 1, 19 14. 
A great number of branch railroads had been built 
right up to the Russian border so that troops could 
be sent in great hordes to twenty places at once. 



50 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Russia was planning to build, the next year, roads of 
the same kind leading to the German boundary, and it 
would be a great mistake to put off the war till then. 

In the spring of 19 14 Germany had built a large 
number of branch lines which reached the Belgian 
border. The French had strongly fortified their east- 
ern boundary, where the Vosges Mountains formed 
a natural rampart. On the northern side, however, 
toward Belgium and Luxemburg there was only one 
fort, Maubeuge (mobuzh') — for these little coun- 
tries had been promised, by all the great European 
nations, that no army should ever invade their lands. 

Therefore, the Germans, since the French had been 
simple-minded enough to trust to their honor, pro- 
posed to swoop down upon France through the 
unprotected northern boundary, by taking a short 
cut through Belgium and Luxemburg. 

Of course Belgium would protest, but would never 
dare to resist. True, she had solemnly pledged her 
word to the other nations that she would resist if 
anybody tried to send armed men across her land, 
but think how terribly she would be punished if 
she tried to stop the Germans ! Oh, no, the Belgians 
would be wise. They were no fools. They would take 
the money Germany offered for a free passage for 
her armies, and be so much better off at the close of 
the war, besides being friends of the winning side ! 
A quick dash across the railroads of Belgium, and 
the German armies would be in France one week 
after war was declared. 



THE BLOW 51 

One smashing victory — the French were poor, 
weak fighters anyway ; and their army would be 
much smaller than Germany's and poorly equipped 
with guns, — a triumphal march into Paris, a peace 
held out to France on the point of the bayonet, and 
the Germans would jump on their trains and be 
rushed back to eastern Germany, long before the 
Russians were ready to fight. 

But they would not return empty-handed. "To 
the victor belong the spoils." Little did the French 
know that right in their cities had been living 
thousands of German spies. They had become 
managers, superintendents of factories, cashiers of 
banks. They knew just who had money hidden 
away and who had not. A list of all the wealthy 
people of each town to be invaded was in the hands 
of the German officers. 

All the machinery from the factories should be 
torn out and taken to Germany to enrich German 
manufacturers. And the French government would 
pay a tremendous sum as an indemnity — Bismarck 
had made a great mistake in 1871, — letting France 
off with the payment of a billion dollars — he should 
have made it two billion. But never mind, the 
mistake would be made good this time. Germany 
would take ten billions — and if France would not 
pay it, Paris should be razed to the ground ! Oh, 
never fear, — they would pay, these Frenchmen. 

And as for the Russians ! Germany had watched 
them make war against Japan in 1905. Their gen- 



52 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

erals had no intelligence, their equipment was poor, 
they had very few factories to make ammunition, 
and their whole army was honeycombed with graft 
and treason. A great many of the Russian soldiers 
were of German descent and many of these would 
secretly aid Germany. 

In 1904 the Russian soldiers had all gotten so 
drunk on vodka that it had taken them six weeks 
to finish their mobilization. Six weeks ! in that 
time Germany would have smashed France to a pulp 
and would be ready to hurl her mighty army back 
to finish the conquest of Russia. A million Aus- 
trians, meanwhile, would have invaded southern 
Russia, and when the victorious Germans joined 
them, it would be only a short time before Russia, 
too, would be suing for peace. 

As a part of the peace terms Russia and France 
would be required to surrender their navies to Ger- 
many. Two years of rest and preparation and 
then, Great Britain, beware ! The seas as well as 
the land should come under German control. The 
Junkers would be lords of the earth ! 

Such was the magnificent picture that the Kaiser 
painted to his war lords, his bankers, and great manu- 
facturers, called together in Potsdam on July 5, 19 14. 

He took them, to speak figuratively, up on a high 
mountain, and showed them the kingdoms of the 
earth — and they were tempted and fell. In all that 
great assembly, representing the intelligence, the 
wealth, the power of the German nation, not one man 



THE BLOW 53 

had the moral courage to stand up and say, "This 
sounds like the speech of Attila, the Hun ; or Timur 
Beg, the Tatar ; or Lobengula, the cannibal chief of 
Central Africa ! The world to-day will not tolerate 
such practices. All business is based on honor, and 
if you put through this program, what faith will the 
world ever again put in the word of a German?" 

Questions were asked about Italy. The Kaiser 
replied that the agreement with Italy required her 
to rush to Germany's help if Germany were attacked 
by two powers ; and they would be able to make it 
appear that France and Russia were the aggressors 
in the war, just as Bismarck had been able to persuade 
the world in 1870, that France had attacked Prussia. 

"How about England ?" asked some one. Eng- 
land, answered the Kaiser, would never dare fight. 
True, she had promised to protect Belgium. But if 
Belgium accepted Germany's terms for the free 
passage of the German army, there would be no need 
of England's interference. But all the world knew, 
said the Kaiser, that Great Britain was on the verge 
of a civil war over the question of Irish Home Rule. 
Fifty thousand rifles and thousands of rounds of 
ammunition, all from Germany, had secretly been 
distributed among the Irish during the last spring, 
and the war was likely to break out at any moment. 

Again, there was an agreement with certain Boers 
in South Africa and with Hindoos in India, to start 
rebellions if England showed signs of entering the 
war. Oh no, England knew better than to enter the 



54 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

war. And if she did, what then ? She had no army 
at all — merely a few regiments. True, she had 
the biggest navy in the world. But this was scat- 
tered over the seven seas, while the German fleet 
was collected at the mouth of the Kiel Canal. It 
would be simple for the whole German fleet to dash 
out and overwhelm the separate parts of the British 
navy before they could unite. 

But the English were not fighters — they were 
a nation of shopkeepers. Instead of learning war 
they spent their time at fox hunting or playing silly 
games like cricket or football. They would not 
fight — all the German secret agents in England 
were agreed on this, — for one thing the Labor and 
Irish parties would be too strong in their opposition. 

Then the Kaiser had in reserve another weapon. 
If it were shown that they needed her help Turkey 
would join in the war. This would divert one-fourth 
of the Russian army to guard the Caucasus region. 

And best of all — the Sultan of Turkey would 
command the Sheik-ul-Islam, the head of the Moham- 
medan church, to proclaim a jehad — a holy war 
against the infidel Christians. 

Then woe be unto England and France and 
Russia — for India, Algeria, Tunis, Morocco, Tur- 
kestan, and Central Africa would at once be aflame 
with revolt. 

The meeting broke up. The bankers asked for 
two weeks in which to make their loans and sell 
their foreign stocks and bonds. This was granted — 



THE BLOW 55 

and the springing of the trap was set for the 
latter part of the month. In the meantime, in order 
to remove suspicion, the Kaiser went cruising 
in Norway, and the newspapers were ordered to "put 
the soft pedal" on any talk of wars resulting from 
the murder of the Austrian Archduke. 

Can any one imagine a more fiendish plan ? For 
the sake of their own vainglorious pride, for the 
sake of their thirst for power, for the sake of the loot 
of a continent, this little group of men, already 
gorged with power, already rich beyond the dreams 
of avarice, already masters of the world's trade and 
manufacture, deliberately planned a war which was 
destined to slay ten million men, and bring misery 
and sorrow to four-fifths of the world. 

Now we can understand what happened. When 
the British Ambassador at Berlin tried to induce the 
German Government to hold Austria back until 
the dispute had been heard before a court of Ger- 
mans, Italians, French, and English, he was asked 
to promise that England would stay neutral, in case 
of war between Germany and Austria on one hand 
and France and Russia on the other. 

"We will promise not to take any more land from 
France if Great Britain will remain neutral," said 
the German Foreign Minister. 

"How about the French colonies?" asked the 
Englishman. 

Ah, that was a different matter. Nobody could 
tell what would become of them. 



56 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Austria, by this time, had captured Belgrade and 
was driving the Serbian army away from the banks 
of the Danube. 

Once more Sir Edward Grey tried to induce the 
diplomats to talk the matter over, quietly. He pro- 
posed that Austria hold Belgrade, Serbia's capital, 
while a court was held to decide the rights and 
wrongs of the affair. 

Austria finally sent word to Russia that "she would 
discuss the matter with the Tzar's government, 
but meanwhile the expedition to punish the Serbians 
must keep on. In other words, after Serbia had 
been ravaged and her young men killed, it could be 
decided whether she deserved the punishment or 
not! 

This was the first sign of any disposition to talk 
the matter over on the part of the Central Powers 
(Austria and Germany), and the friends of peace took 
hope. 

On the same day, however, the German Imperial 
Government took a step which destroyed all chance 
of a peaceful settlement. Russia had notified Ger- 
many that as the Austrian army was mobilized, 
ready to attack Russia, the Russian armies along 
the Austrian border would be mobilized also. 
However, the troops from the north would not 
be mobilized against Germany. The Tzar in a 
telegram to the Kaiser had given his solemn promise 
that not a Russian soldier should march for the 
front while there was the slightest chance for 



TTIE BLOW 57 

peace. In the face of this, the Berlin govern- 
ment sent an arrogant and insulting message 
to Russia, ordering her to stop immediately all 
mobilization and warlike preparations. If this 
were not done within twelve hours Germany would 
declare war. The mailed fist, on its last and fatal 
appearance ! What Germany asked was a physical 
impossibility. The message was sent at midnight, 
July 31. It could not be forwarded to the various 
mobilization centers within twenty-four hours, for 
there were parts of the great Russian empire that 
could not be reached by telegraph. 

The Tzar and King George of England in vain 
appealed to their imperial cousin, the Kaiser. His 
answer was that Russia, by her mobilization, forced 
him to this act. All Europe, outside of the Central 
Powers, knew that this was false. Both Russia 
and Austria had mobilized their armies in 1909, but 
no war came of it. 

Germany then asked France whether she intended 
to stand by her pledge to help Russia. France gave 
an answer which meant, "That is our affair, not 
yours." Meanwhile the French had given orders 
to their sentries along the German frontier to draw 
back six miles, for fear some German act might pro- 
voke a Frenchman into firing on German territory. 

Germany waited till noon, August 1, for an answer 
from Russia. Then her rulers took the step for which 
their names will be forever hated. They declared 
war on Russia, and started their armies westward 



58 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

for a smashing drive on France. One army headed 
toward the northern end of the Vosges Mountains ; a 
second overran Luxemburg, a little neutral state, 
which, as you will remember, had been promised 
protection against just this very thing ; a third, the 
largest, started toward the eastern boundary of Bel- 
gium. In the meantime, the German Ambassador at 
Brussels was solemnly assuring the anxious Belgians 
that Germany had not any thought of marching her 
armies through Belgian lands. If he had told the 
truth the Belgians might have had time to get 
together their troops to resist ! 

The Germans had expected to provoke France 
into firing the first shot so that it could be made to 
appear that Germany was fighting a war of defense. 
But the French remained cool and refused to be 
caught in the German trap. By drawing back 
their soldiers from the border, they exposed their 
own people on the boundary line to the German 
armies, but they showed the world which side was 
the attacking party. 

Meanwhile crowds in Berlin and other German 
cities were screaming joyously, as the news was 
published that war was actually declared. The 
German constitution said that any declaration of 
war must be made by the Reichstag (see page 3) 
except a defensive war, which might be declared by 
the Kaiser. The newspapers, nearly all controlled 
by the government, told the people that this was a 
defensive war, for Germany was surrounded by hate- 



THE BLOW 59 

ful neighbors, who were jealous of her wealth and 
power. To the merchants and manufacturers the 
military crowd held out the prospect of the ruining 
of the French factories, thus making Germany 
mistress of the trade of the world. To the army 
was promised a short war with great glory to the 
conquerors, the chance to rob the rich cities of 
France of their treasures, and a triumphant return 
home "before the leaves fall from the trees." 

Yet even in this hour the Germans tried to hold 
the friendship and respect of some of the neutral 
nations. They made strenuous efforts to justify 
themselves and throw the blame on other govern- 
ments. They left their ambassador at Paris two 
days after their troops had invaded French territory, 
hoping that France would declare war first. But 
again the French refused to walk into the trap. 
When the German Ambassador at Paris finally 
did hand the French government the declaration of 
war, it stated that because French cavalry had crossed 
into Germany and attacked German soldiers, and 
because French aviators had dropped bombs on 
certain German cities, Germany was forced to 
defend herself ! This tissue of lies did not deceive 
any one outside of Germany. In fact, it did not 
deceive the Germans themselves very long, for the 
cities that were supposed to have been bombed by 
the aviators came out with statements that nothing 
of the kind had ever happened. 

One of the most pitiful attempts of Germany to 



6o HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

appeal to the friendship of neutral countries was the 
telegram to President Wilson written by the Kaiser 
in his own handwriting and handed to Mr. Gerard, 
the American Ambassador. The latter gives it in his 
book, "My Four Years in Germany." It is so weak, 
lame, and insincere as to be a real confession of guilt. 
True to the prediction of the old Chancellor "the 
young fool" (no longer young, but still a fool) was 
playing his hand and playing it at the wrong time. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

i. If the murder of the Archduke and his wife was committed 
on Austrian soil by an Austrian subject, how could Serbia be blamed? 

2. Why was the matter apparently neglected for several weeks? 

3. Why was the Austrian note delivered at six p.m. ? 

4. What was the advice of Russia and France? 

5. What is shown by Count Berchtold's "vacation"? 

6. How did German diplomats show that they were dishonest 
in claiming to have known nothing about the Austrian note before- 
hand ? 

7. What demands in the Austrian note did Austria know 
Serbia could not accept? 

8. How did Serbia reply to these demands? 

9. What shows that Austria knew that Serbia could not accept 
the demands? 

10. How did Germany reply to the peace invitation of Sir Edward 
Grey? 

1 1 . Why could not Grey promise what Sazonoff wished ? 

12. Why did the time seem ripe (to Germany) for the war? 

13. Why was France to be attacked? 

14. What was to be done to Great Britain after Russia and France 
were defeated ? 

15. Why did the Junkers feel that England would never enter 
the war? 



THE BLOW 6 1 

1 6. What did Germany do when Austria, by agreeing to talk the 
matter over, showed that she was weakening? 

17. What was being told to the Belgians by Germany? 

18. What did the German people believe? 

19. How did the French avoid the German trap? 



CHAPTER IV 
Where Germany Miscalculated 

The greatest crime in two centuries. — Immortal Belgium. — Great 
Britain speaks, then acts. — The Chancellor's "scrap of paper." 

— The rage of Germany against Britain. — Italy not deceived. — 
How France received the news. — ■ The Tzar makes Russia "dry." 

— The advance of the Russian "steam roller." — Hindenburg 
of the swamps. — Nicholas defeats the Austrians. — Hindenburg, 
aided by Rennenkampf's treachery, wins a big victory. — The 
retreat of the "Old Contemptibles." — Joffre and Gallieni. — 
The end of the great retreat. — Forward all ! — The taxicab 
army. — Foch breaks the German center. — The great plan is 
broken. — A new kind of battle. — The race to the sea. — The 
attack on the Channel ports. — Flooding the land. — The last 
grand assault. — Seesaw in the east. — The "punishing expedi- 
tion" returns home. 

"Belgium will never resist us," the military leaders 
had said. "She has too much to lose." 

And so, when the German army arrived at the 
Belgian boundary and demanded free passage on Bel- 
gian railroads to enable them to dash through to the 
unprotected northern side of France, it was done with 
much the air that one would use if he were asking a 
favor of another who was greatly his debtor. 

True, Germany covered up her effrontery by say- 
ing that information had reached the General Staff 
that the French intended to attack Germany through 

Belgium, and, of course, as Belgium would not be 

62 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 63 

strong enough to fight the French army, the German 
army would march through Belgium and fight the 
French for the Belgians. 

The Belgian answer rang true. The noble little 
country saw herself about to be trampled, bleeding, 
under foot, by the mightiest war machine that the 
world had ever seen, yet she never wavered. 

The French, she answered, showed no intention 
of invading Belgium. If they did, the Belgian army 
would resist them with all its power. 

The invasion which Germany proposed was the 
very thing that Belgium had sworn to oppose, at 
the time when the nations of Europe had guaranteed 
her independence. This oath she would make good, 
though she were destroyed ! 

True Faith and Perjured Faith stood face to face. 
To the lasting honor of Belgium, she kept her plighted 
word, though she bled and starved for four long years 
as a result. To the lasting disgrace of Germany, 
she broke her solemn promise, broke it in the hope 
of ravaging and plundering France, a country which 
wished nothing but peace, and as a result she fell, a 
nation beaten, humiliated, and scorned, "and none 
so poor to do her reverence." 

The mighty machine advanced to attack the forts 
of Liege (le-ezh'). 

The Belgian bullets cut them down by the thou- 
sand. But more thousands took the places of those 
who fell. The civilized world was appalled at the 
stories of the losses. 



64 HISTORY OF THE GREAT WAR 

There was a halt for a while, then the invading 
forces swept around the city, driving the Belgians 
before them. The big howitzers* that were following 
the army, to be used on Maubeuge and Paris, were 
brought up and placed in position. One shot — and 
a great bastion, f built of steel and concrete, crumbled 
apart, then heaved to the sky in a tremendous 
explosion. 

There was no withstanding these tremendous 
weapons. Fort after fort was taken, and the flag 
of Germany waved over the conquered city. 

The little Belgian army, hastily gathered and un- 
prepared for war, retreated sullenly, resisting every 
step of the way, although outnumbered ten to one. 
The quick rush to the northern boundary of France 
was not to be, after all, and the Germans fought 
desperately, rapidly, realizing that time was fight- 
ing against them. 

Meanwhile, what of England ? On August 3, she 
was the only one of the nations that had promised 
to defend Belgium who was not at war. 

Even the German Chancellor, on the 4th of August 
admitted, in a speech to the Reichstag, that the in- 
vasion of Belgium was a wrong, that Germany would 
try to set right after her armies returned, victorious, 
from the war. 

The German Foreign Secretary, Von Jagow (ya'go) , 
in explaining to the British Ambassador why it was 

* Howitzer : a short cannon of large diameter. 
t Bastion : a projecting angle of a fort. 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 65 

necessary to take the short cut through Belgium, 
pointed out that by doing so Germany ' ' avoided the 
southern route, with its few roads and many for- 
tresses," as if that were an excuse for breaking one's 
solemn pledge. The Chancellor, too, said that "France 
could afford to wait, while we could not. We are in a 
state of necessity and necessity knows no law." 

It would be hard to find in the history of any 
country since 1700 so callous an attitude toward 
right and justice. 

You will remember that at the war conference in 
Potsdam on July 5 (see page 52) it had been made 
plain to the Junkers by the Kaiser just why England 
would have to keep out of the war. The prophecy 
about the Irish civil war made at that time had 
meanwhile come true. On July 26, a Dublin mob 
had attacked the soldiers who had been sent to pre- 
vent the landing of ten thousand more German rifles, 
and there had been a battle, with over sixty people 
wounded or killed. All Ireland was in an uproar. 
No, England would never care to go to war. 

Imagine, then, the consternation and agitation in 
Berlin when, on the evening of August 4, Sir 
Edward Goschen, the British Ambassador, notified 
the German Secretary, Von Jagow, that unless Great 
Britain received word by midnight that the German 
army had been ordered to withdraw from Belgium, 
the British government would do everything in its 
power to defend Belgium, a thing which the Germans 
as well as the British had sworn to do. 



66 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Von Jagow gloomily replied that it was too late. 
Germany had formed her plan and must go through 
with it. Sir Edward then asked to see the Chan- 
cellor, Von Bethmann-Hollweg (beVman-hol'veg) . 

The news of England's ac- 
tion had already reached 
him. When the ambassa- 
dor entered his office the 
Chancellor was pacing ex- 
citedly up and down. He 
bitterly assailed the 
British government. Just 
for a word, "neutrality" 
— just for a scrap of paper 
Great Britain was going to 
make war on a kindred 
nation that was anxious to 
remain friends with her. 
He stormed on for twenty 
minutes without giving Sir 
Edward a chance to speak. 
All his plans were falling about his ears like a house of 
cards, said he. Finally Sir Edward remarked quietly 
that as the Chancellor felt that it was a matter of 
life and death for Germany to strike France quickly 
from the north, through Belgium, so it was a matter 
of life and death for the honor of Great Britain 
that she keep her solemn promise to stand by 
Belgium in her hour of need. If Great Britain 
failed to keep this promise through fear of Ger- 




The German Imperial Chan- 
cellor, von Bethmann- 
Hollweg 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 67 

many, how could any country ever believe her word 
again ? 

The Chancellor then, threateningly, asked whether 
the British government had counted the terrible cost 
of keeping its word. Fear of the result, answered 
Sir Edward, could hardly be regarded as an excuse 
for breaking solemn pledges. But the Chancellor 
by this time was so excited and so disturbed that he 
could not talk sensibly. 

The fun was gone out of the whole scheme. It 
would have been merely a holiday to rush through to 
Paris, smash the French army, and to return in time 
to help Austria polish off the clumsy Russians. And 
on the ocean the German and Austrian navies would 
have made short work of the French and Russian 
fleets. The commerce of these countries would have 
disappeared from the seas. The German ships would 
have blockaded their ports, captured their merchant 
vessels, and taken away the French colonies. 

But the British empire ! That was a horse of 
another color. Now Germany would have to fight 
a long, hard war. "The British are a stubborn 
people," said the Kaiser, gloomily, to the American 
Ambassador. 

And the hate of the Germans flared out against 
England. It was the same feeling that the thief 
has for the detective who seizes him just as he is 
breaking into an undefended house where he expects 
to make a rich haul. "God punish England," 
was the cry all over Germany. For what? For 



68 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

daring, at a huge cost to herself, to refuse to 
break her solemn promise. 
~~ Meanwhile, what of Italy? 

The Italians were not deceived for a minute by the 
German claims of a "defensive" war. They saw 
that a monstrous wrong was being done by their 
former partners, and they were anxious to right it 
as far as possible. Therefore, they sent a prompt 
notice to France that they would remain strictly 
neutral. No Italian army would cross the Alps to 
stab France in the back, while Germany thrust 
for her undefended northern side through Belgium. 
Another little miscalculation at Potsdam. 

Bismarck had been able to make it appear that 
France was the attacking party in 1870, and they 
had planned to repeat this maneuver in 19 14, thus 
bringing Italy to their defense. But France and 
Italy had both refused to fall into the trap. 

To tell the truth, the Triple Alliance (Germany, 
Austria, and Italy) had been slightly strained by re- 
cent events. Germany and Austria had never quite 
forgiven Italy for making war on Turkey in 1 9 1 1 and 
taking Tripoli. Then, too, in 1913, when Austria 
had proposed to Italy and Germany that an 
immediate attack be made on Serbia, Italy had 
replied with a strong "no." She did not care 
to see Austria in control of the Balkan countries. 
Italy, also, could not forget the harsh treatment 
of the people of her own race and speech who were 
under the rule of Austria. 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 69 

Meanwhile, what was going on in France? 

For forty-three years the French people had lived 
under a shadow. The great military machine to 
the northeast had yearly grown more formidable, 
as the population of Germany increased rapidly 
while that of France stood still. The remembrance 
of the great horde of warriors with their spiked hel- 
mets who had poured down from the Vosges in 1870 
was still vivid and fresh. It seemed that nothing 
would, prevent their coming again. In 1 875 and 1 887, 
in 1905 and 191 1 the German saber had rattled loudly, 
and each time it seemed that only a miracle had kept 
away the war. When the unprovoked attack of 
1 9 14 at last burst on them, the French, conscious 
that they were outnumbered and outgunned, set 
their teeth grimly and vowed to sell their lives as 
dearly as possible. There were three days of de- 
pression and anxiety — when suddenly, out of a maze 
of rumors and doubts, burst the great news, pro- 
claimed by the newspapers in flaring headlines : 
11 England Declares War against Germany." With 
a glad relief, and a warm expression of gratitude 
to her island neighbor, her chivalrous foe in many 
wars of the past, France shook off her gloom and 
set to work. Ca va mieux. (That is going better.) 
Only to hold the first rush of the beast and beat him 
back. Courage ! powerful friends were coming ! 

Meanwhile, the great gray-green war machine from 
the east was slightly behind its schedule. The un- 
expected and annoying decision of the Belgians to 



70 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

stand by their treaties had caused a delay of several 
days. Precious days they were, too, for every day 
brought boatloads of Zouaves from Tunis, hardened 
warriors from Algeria and Morocco, even black men 
from Senegal, all wearing the gay red and blue uniform 
of France's fighting men. Rapidly, ; desperately, 
silently, France was gathering to meet the German 
rush. 

In the east a French army swarmed, without due 
regard for the consequences, across the Vosges Moun- 
tains into the beloved country of Alsace, torn from 
France in 1871. The Alsatian inhabitants, although 
their sons had been forced into the German army, 
in a frenzy of joy tore up the boundary posts and wept 
with gladness at the sight of the familiar red and blue. 
As it turned out, the Germans had laid a trap for 
the French by leaving this part of the border unpro- 
tected. When they had descended from the moun- 
tains into the plain, an immense German army from 
the north, outnumbering them heavily, swooped 
down and drove them out of several of the cities that 
they had reclaimed. But once back in the hill 
country the French rallied and held. There were 
parts of Alsace that France never gave up. 

Let us turn, for the moment, to see what was hap- 
pening in the east. You will recall that the German 
plan called for an invasion of southern Russia by the 
main Austrian army, a million strong, while a small 
German army held the country of East Prussia 
against any Russians that might appear on the coast 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 



71 



of the Baltic. But it was a well-known fact that the 
drunkenness of the Russian soldiers and the poor 
management of the Russian officers would probably 
keep the Russian army from being fully mobilized 
until after the French army- 
had been blotted off the map. 
In Russia, all the saloons, 
all the distilleries, and all the 
breweries were owned by the 
government. Only govern- 
ment agents were allowed 
to sell vodka, the favorite 
strong drink of the Russians. 
As the Russian army was 
called to its colors, the Tzar 
sent out a command that the 
sale of vodka should stop, at 
once. That order was 
obeyed. From being the 
most drunken nation in the world, Russia turned, in 
a day, into the "dryest." As a result, when the 
Austrians poured triumphantly across the bound- 
aries and began to pillage the country, a mighty 
Russian horde, steady and well disciplined, under 
the command of the Grand Duke Nicholas, cousin 
of the Tzar, fell upon them like a thunderbolt, and 
hurled them back in confusion into their own lands. 
In the north, the war was hardly a week old when 
another great army under General Rennenkampf 
poured into East Prussia, sweeping everything be- 




Key stone View Co., Inc. 

The Grand Duke Nicholas 
of Russia 



7 2 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



fore it. In a few days people from this country, 
fleeing from their homes before the advancing Rus- 
sians, began flocking into Berlin. Panic and conster- 
nation reigned in the German capital. Himme.1 ! 
What did these Russians mean, appearing so early ? 

They were not due for six or 
seven weeks, according to 
the plans of the General 
Staff! Finally, with the 
greatest reluctance, the 
Staff sent word that two 
army corps (about 80,000 
men) should be sent back 
from Belgium and hurried 
to the help of the defenders 
of Konigsberg, around 
which Rennenkampf's 
army was intrenched. 

There was a crusty, 
rough, old German general 
who had made a special study of this East Prussia 
district. It is full of lakes, swamps, and slow-flowing 
rivers. There had been a plan to drain these lakes 
some years before, but this old fellow had raised such 
a furious clamor that the government finally gave up 
the project. So they called him "Swampy" Hinden- 
burg. He had grown so old that they had put him 
on the retired list, which pleased the Kaiser, for 
Hindenburg had an unpleasant way of saying just 
what he thought. Often at the sham battles that 




Keystone Vietc Co, Inc. 

General von Hindenbuk. ; 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 73 

the army went through he would tell his Majesty 
just how the latter had blundered. But now there 
was a great need. Some one had to take charge of 
the army that was opposing the Russians in East 
Prussia. So Hindenburg was called from his retire- 
ment. 

Meanwhile, in northeastern Austria, the Grand 
Duke Nicholas was heavily punishing the Austrians 
under Generals Dankl and Von Auflenberg. Battle 
after battle he won, and town after town fell into 
his hands. Finally Lemberg, the largest city in 
Austrian Galicia, was taken, and the beaten Aus- 
trian army retreated to the Carpathian Mountains. 
All of this took place within six weeks after the begin- 
ning of the war. Panic took possession of people 
in Budapest and Vienna. This war was not going 
to be a holiday excursion, after all. 

But the Grand Duke, great soldier that he was, 
could not be everywhere at once. In the north the 
Russian armies were badly ded if not betrayed by 
their leaders. Hindenburg, once in command of 
the troops in East Prussia, had gathered an army 
out of the reserves, the older men and the two corps 
sent back from Belgium. In former times, for just 
such an occasion as this, he had had some roads built 
which appeared passable, but which really led into 
the swamps and fens. Attacking the southern of the 
Russian armies, General SamsonofT's in East Prussia, 
he forced it to retreat. German spies, or traitors of 
German blood in the Russian army, directed the re- 



74 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

treat along these false roads. And then, when it was 
too late, part of the Russians found themselves cut 
off from the rest of the army and caught between 
Hindenburg's army and the swamps. Fearing to 
turn back, they tried to wade through the mud and 
water, but, pushed on by the thousands from behind, 
they sank in, deeper and deeper, till fifty or sixty 
thousand of them, unable to move, were sinking inch 
by inch to a terrible death. Another sixty thousand 
were forced to surrender and the whole Russian army 
was destroyed. Meanwhile the heart-rending cries 
and screams from the poor wretches who were sinking 
into the mud grew so terrible that some of the 
German soldiers who had to listen to them actually 
went insane. When Hindenburg learned of this, he 
turned his guns on the struggling, slimy mass, and 
cut them to pieces with shells. 

Meanwhile General Rennenkampf, only a few 
miles away, with an army nearly as large as Hinden- 
burg's, had not stirred a hand to save Samsonoff 
in the south. Not until the other Russian army had 
been completely destroyed did he move. Then he 
gave up the siege of Konigsberg and retreated into 
Russian territory. The first Russian invasion of 
Germany had failed. 

Nearly a year later authorities in Russia, re- 
membering that he was of German blood, ordered 
Rennenkampf to be deprived of his command and 
to be tried for treason. 

Meanwhile what was England doing to help 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 75 

France ? The "English, protected by their mighty 
fleet and the still mightier ocean, had never forced 
their young men to learn military drill and serve 
a certain time in the army, as all the other Euro- 
pean nations had been compelled to do. The 
British army was made up of a small force of men 
who had enlisted for a certain number of years and 
were paid for their services. The whole army did not 
amount to more than 200,000 men, of whom a little 
over half were in England when war was declared. 
It was a little group, compared with the million and 
a quarter that Germany was hurling at the throat 
of France. 

When the Kaiser heard that they were crossing the 
channel, he told his troops to " drive England's 
contemptible little army into the sea." Immediately 
the British nicknamed themselves "the Old Con- 
temptibles." Small in numbers they might be, but 
they were "bonny fighters," as the Scotch would say. 
They had left their blood all over the globe, from 
South Africa and the Soudan to Burma and Afghanis- 
tan. It was near Mons (mon(g)s) and Charleroi 
(shar le rwa) in Belgium that they and their French 
comrades first encountered the Germans. The war 
was now three weeks old, and all the fighting had 
been done by the Belgians, with the exception of the 
French dash into Alsace, of which you have already 
read. 

At Mons the British stood, while, Germans, five 
times their number, fell upon them. Sullenly, 



76 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

doggedly, making their opponents pay for every 
inch of the way, they retreated. There was no single 
commander-in-chief, at this time, on the allied side, 
so the French, not knowing just which way the 
British were about to move, left a gap in the line 
between the two armies. Through this gap poured 
the Germans, determined to surround and destroy 
the little British army. But still the dogged, cool 
courage of the islanders held them off. They held 
together in perfect order, although cruelly punished 
by the German guns. Their own artillery had not 
yet arrived, and they were fighting against machine 
guns and cannons with rifles and pistols. At Le 
Cateau (le ca to') they stood once more, and after 
inflicting stinging losses upon the pursuing Germans, 
were finally forced back again by the weight of 
superior numbers and heavier guns. 

A dark pall fell over France. "The Prussians once 
more!" "It is 1870 over again!" "Can our men 
never stop them ? ' ' Thus muttered the people as the 
daily bulletins showed the Germans at Namur, 
then at Givet (zhi'va), at Maubeuge, at Hirson 
(ir'son(g)), at Rheims (ranss), at the Marne. 

The government moved its offices from Paris to 
Bordeaux. A great many Parisians followed the offi- 
cials to the south. Those who remained were down- 
cast, gloomy. Would victory never come ? And 
the soldiers, fighting, then retreating, always moving 
backward, could not understand it. The French- 
man, full of fiery impetuosity, is eager to rush to meet 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 77 

his foe. It galls him to retreat, retreat in this 
fashion, when he is positive that if his generals would 
only give him a chance, he could make these Ger- 
mans bite the dust. But while Berlin screamed its 
joy over these rapid, wonderful victories, and the 
German soldiers were driven faster and faster on the 
heels of the retreating French, while France feared 
and her soldiers chafed over this rearward motion, 
there was one man absolutely calm. This was 
"Papa" Joffre (zhofr), the French General-in-chief. 
Day by day his army was growing stronger, as the 
men from the south, the African fighters, and the 
regiments of older men were rapidly mobilized and 
rushed to his support. His steady retreat had given 
the Germans the idea that the French could not 
stand against them, and that they were about to 
score the greatest victory that the world had ever 
seen. Intending to smash the French in one big 
battle, they now had formed a still bigger scheme. 
Swinging on the fortress of Verdun (var dun '(g)) as 
a pivot, they set out to sweep the whole French army 
south and eastward, fence it in with its back to Swit- 
zerland, cut it off from its supplies, and capture the 
entire million men at once ! Faster and faster swung 
the German right wing, commanded by the redoubt- 
able Von Kluck. They had started for Paris, but 
here was bigger game. With the French army des- 
troyed or captured they could loot Paris at their 
leisure. 

Meanwhile there had been appointed as military 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 



General Joffre 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 



79 



governor of the capital city, a remarkable old man, 
General Gallieni (gal ya/ni) . He had fought all over 
the world under the tricolored flag. 

"I have been commanded by the government to 
hold this city against the 
enemy," said he to the 
down-hearted citizens. 
"That command will I 
obey to the end." 

Ah, that sounded bet- 
ter. Here was a man and 
a fighter, in spite of his 
seventy years. And Paris 
armed itself, gritted its 
teeth, and muttered 
"jusqu'au bout!" (zhoosk- 
6-boo), (to the end). 

It was the first week 
in September. The great 
retreat was still in prog- 
ress. Six great German 
armies were 'rushing southward, driving before them 
the apparently broken and disorganized French, and 
the little British force, like leaves before an autumn 
wind. They had crossed the Marne, and, neglect- 
ing Paris, left it behind on the right. 

The moment for which Joffre had been waiting 
was here. At last his army, at the important points 
at least, was nearly equal in numbers to that of the 
Germans. The far-seeing Joffre had formed a new 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Gallieni 



8o 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



army, under the General Manoury (manoo'ri), and 
slipped it north unnoticed by the Germans, until it 
stood on Von Kluck's unprotected -right flank. 



E.VGfUND po^ er 



English 

Channel 




THE FIRST BATTLE OF THE MARNE 

' —i French troops 

wmmmm British troops 
^hmh^b German troops 

r."-v.rr zi Position of Germans after the battle 
Williams Engraving Co., N.y. 



1 The Taxicab army 

2 Sixth French army - Manoury 

3 British army - Sir John French 

4 French cavalry - Conneau 

5 Fifth French army - Franchet d'Esperey 

6 Ninth French army - Foch 

7 French corps stopping gap in line 

8 Fourth French army - Langle de Gary 

9 French corps stopping gap 

I O Third French army - Sarrail 

f J French armies of Lorraine and Alsace - 
I 3 S f t ' t " era ' s Vubail, de Castelnau and Pau 



A First German army - von Kluck 

B Second German army - von Billow 

C Third German army - von Hausen 

D Fourth German army - Duke of Wuriemberg 

E Fifth German army - the Croivn Prince 



8 



German armies of the Crown Prince of 
Bavaria, the Kaiser, and vonHeeringen 



I Austrian corps lent to Germany 



"Strike," said Joffre, and Manoury struck. Taken 
by surprise, but able and resourceful, Von Kluck 
turned part of his army to face these new opponents. 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 81 

Manoury's army was a small one and, even with the 
British attacking on the south, Von Kluck's men were 
not outnumbered. The Germans were brought to a 
standstill on the extreme western front end of the 
line, but they were still far from beaten. 

At the same time JorTre sent out the command all 
along the two hundred mile front — ' ' The hour has 
come to advance ; cost what it may ! The men will 
die where they stand rather than to retreat a step 
further." 

That was what the French were waiting for ! 
Like hunting dogs that have been held in leash too 
long, they sprang at these invaders who had been 
devastating their lands, burning their homes, and 
killing their people. For two days the battle raged 
furiously. The little British force, wedged in on the 
French left between Manoury's men and the Fifth 
French Army of Franchet D'Esperey (fran sha des' 
pra), fought valorously, forgetting its long retreat, 
and the heavy punishment it had taken. The 
battle between Von Kluck on the one side and 
Manoury and the British on the other was long and 
doubtful. 

On the second day of the fight, Joflre sent word to 
Gallieni: " Every available man to aid Manoury!" 
The old man, full of resource, seized every one of the 
five thousand taxicabs in the city and loaded them to 
full, ten soldiers to the cab. Old veterans, policemen, 
anybody who had a rifle, all were piled in. Out from 
the city sped these thousands of cars and suddenly 



82 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

on the flank of the astonished Von Kluck appeared 
this new French army, as though let down from the 
clouds. 

Caught between the taxicab men, Manoury, and 
the British, Von Kluck found himself in a trap. 
Scenting the danger, he gave the order to retreat. 
By the narrowest of margins he got away, but it was 
a narrow escape. If the British had not been so ex- 
hausted from their continuous fighting and marching, 
if they had been able to pursue as Joffre hoped, Von 
Kluck' s whole army might have been cut off. 

Meanwhile, to the eastward, the Germans were 
striking heavy blows. The battle wavered. A 
ninth French army, made up at the last moment 
of late arrivals, had been thrown into the center 
and placed under the command of Joffre' s most 
trusted helper, Foch (fosh) , the professor of strategy 
and tactics at the Military College. At last came a 
time when the Germans, in order to strike heavier 
blows on the sides, had withdrawn some of the troops 
that had been hammering Foch's army. Like a flash, 
Joffre saw his opportunity. He sent word to Foch 
that he might strike. Back came the word, "My 
right is defeated, my left is thrown back, I shall 
attack with my center." 

And the vigorous thrust that followed broke clear 
through the German lines. On the third day the 
battle was no longer doubtful. Von Kluck and Von 
Biilow, on the German right, were headed northward 
on the double quick. Von Hausen, next in order, 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 



83 



had to move back, too, or he would have been caught 
in the rush of victorious French. In front of Foch 
were only broken fragments of what had been an 
army. The great General 
Staff had gambled and 
lost. 

Such was the famous 
first battle of the Marne, 
fought for the most part 
miles south of that river. 
Had it gone the other way 
it is hard to say how fatal 
would have been the result. 
France, with the small but 
valiant help of the "Old 
Contemptibles," had saved 
herself and civilization. 

For years and years the 
German Junkers had planned this smash at France. 
For this the great guns had been made, for this the 
"strategic" railroads built, for this thousands and 
thousands of shells and rounds of ammunition had 
been stored away, for this whole factories built. 

For this special occasion millions of uniforms had 
been made, of a special gray-green cloth, that made 
the wearers very hard to see against field or wood or 
hillside. (The French fought for the first six months 
in their old red trousers and dark blue coats, which 
made them plain targets for the German rifles.) For 
this thousands of German spies had lied and stolen 




General Foch as He Appeared 
Early in the War 



84 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and filled France with their plottings. For this 
thousands and thousands of German officers had spent 
the best years of their lives drilling and planning. 

The towns which, a few days before, had seen a 
haughty, arrogant army of conquerors striding south- 
ward in the wake of the French, now saw those same 
hosts spurring frantically in a frenzy of fear, rushing 
northward almost in a panic, just extricating them- 
selves, with the loss of their baggage, from the jaws 
of Joffre's trap, which closed, hungrily, behind them. 
Among the baggage was a trunk full of medals. 
These were marked: "The Germans in Paris — 
1814 — 1871 — 1914." 

Just north of the little River Aisne and paralleling 
its course for a considerable distance stretches a chain 
of low hills. Here, with true German foresight, the 
General Staff had had some trenches dug, taking ad- 
vantage of numerous French stone quarries which 
could easily be defended. Into this haven rushed 
the panting warriors of Von Kluck and Von Bulow. 
Close at their heels were the. French and the British. 
But here was a real fortress to be stormed, with 
trenches, dugouts, and ramparts, all manned with 
machine guns and backed up by. field artillery. 

After vainly trying the ends of this line of trenches, 
the Allies, too, dug themselves in, and a new phase of 
the war had begun. People all over the world who 
were following closely the progress of the armies, 
failed, at first, to understand what had happened. 
Days and weeks went by and yet there was little 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 85 

change in the position of the two armies. The news- 
papers talked about the ''Battle of the Aisne" and 
spoke of the fact that it was the longest battle in the 
history of the world. As a matter of fact, it had 
ceased to be a battle — it had become a siege. 

Old "Papa" JofTre was soon on the scene. He 
swung a new army (the Tenth, under General 
Maud'huy) (mod'we) up towards the north, trying 
to get around the end of the German line. But it 
met, face to face, overwhelming new masses of Ger- 
mans, who, as soon as they could be armed and. fitted 
out, were being rushed to the west in fast moving 
trains. Both armies struck, recoiled, and dug them- 
selves in. 

And now began that part of the fighting which is 
known as "the race to the sea." While JofTre was 
straining every nerve to throw new armies to the 
north and thus get around behind the Germans' line, 
more and more Germans were being hurried west- 
ward to meet the new armies of France. As each 
arrived, and was unable to get around behind the 
enemy's line, the line of trenches was pushed further 
and further northward. Early in October the great 
siege guns were brought up by the Germans to crush 
the forts of Antwerp, where the Belgian army had 
taken refuge. An English naval brigade had landed 
to help the Belgians, but British and natives were 
hopelessly outnumbered and outgunned by the con- 
stantly growing gray-green horde from the east. 

It soon became evident to all that Antwerp could 



86 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



not be defended, so the garrison retreated in a south- 
westerly direction along the coast to meet their friends 



^"^-ZVO-R TH SEA 
England) 



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English 
Channel 



F 



Paris 




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s)\ 


3 


// 


V 


'• y *» 


\£ 


Y s* 




A- 


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Uarn 



THE RETREAT FROM ANTWERP 
AND THE RACE FOR THE SEA 



m 



French troops 



British troops 



Belgian troops 



i German troops 



A A French troops moving north to overlap the German line 

B B French troops ready to replace the British in the trenches along the Aisne 

C The British force, moved north into Belgium by the path - » 

D D German troops moving westward to overlap the French line 
E E E German troops besieging Antwerp 
F F 77ie Belgian army defending Antwerp 
G British naval brigade, helping to defend Antwerp 
< Route along which British and Belgians retreated from Antwerp 

7Zzz:".z Line finally formed reaching to the sea 



H H H Trench system reaching from Switzerland and being extended northward 
"by the race for the sea 

advancing northward through France. The Germans 
strove hard to cut them off, but the strong defense 
of Ghent by the British held up the attacking troops 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 87 

until the retiring Belgians had reached the line of the 
Yser River and Canal, in very truth the last ditch in 
Belgium. The parallel lines of trenches now stretched 
from Switzerland to the North Sea, across all 
northern France, a distance of some three hundred 
fifty miles. 

General French, Commander of the British, had 
suggested to Joffre that the British be swung around 
from their place in the line near Soissons (swa s6n'(g)) , 
where they had ' ' dug in ' ' after chasing Von Kluck to 
the Aisne, to the left flank of the armies of the north, 
with the idea of reaching Lille before the Germans 
should seize it. 

Accordingly, this was done. New French troops, 
raised from among the older men, slipped quietly in 
and took the places of the British. The latter sped 
northward, filling in the curve in the allied line about 
the Belgian city of Ypres (eepr). Hardly had they 
dug their trenches, when new German forces, partly 
the army that had just captured Antwerp and partly 
fresh troops consisting of young boys and older men 
not called out in the first rush, began a powerful 
attack on the twenty miles of Allied trenches that 
were nearest to the sea. The last eight miles were 
held by the Belgians, the next five by the French 
marines, then came the British. 

It must be remembered that France had a popula- 
tion of only 40,000,000 people from which to draw. 
Behind the German trenches were three and a half 
million French, from whom only the young men 



88 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

between twenty-one and twenty-four years of age had 
made their way into the army. This left only 
36,500,000 people to draw from as compared with 
Germany's 68,000,000. Every able-bodied man in 
both countries had been trained to fight, and as the 
war went on the older men were called out until 
all men under fifty years of age had been pressed 
into the army, with the exception of the skilled work- 
ers in the steel plants where the shells and big guns 
were made. 

In England men were joining the army, but six 
months of training were required before they were 
ready to be sent into battle. 

So in October and November Germany was able 
to send great masses of men, far outnumbering the 
French and British, to attack the new-made trenches 
along the shores of the North Sea. It was announced 
that the ports of France directly across from England, 
Dunkirk, and Calais, were to be captured by the Ger- 
mans in order that they might carry on a war by sub- 
marine boats against English ships. 

The attack began on October 15. Germans rushed 
on the trenches of the little Belgian army close to 
the sea. For a solid week there was no rest for the 
gallant defenders. The great German guns pounded 
them with thousands and thousands of huge shells. 
Then the guns would rest while the flood of gray- 
green infantry poured across the land between the 
two lines of trenches. Charge after charge was 
driven back by the steadiness and sheer grit of the 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 89 

defenders. The Belgians, the French Marines, and 
the British never wavered. If the Germans swarmed 
into their trenches, as happened several times in the 
course of the week, they re-formed back of the lost 
ground, and then, counter-charging, drove out the 
assailants. Along the coast the British navy lent 
its powerful help. Monitors, carrying big guns, but 
drawing little water, sailed up into the shallow water 
close to the shore and sent death and destruction 
into the ranks of the charging Germans. Finally, 
it seemed that the Belgians could bear no more. 
The men had had no rest for days. Standing in 
water up to their knees, sleeping in mudholes or in 
dugouts swarming with vermin, harried by the big 
German shells morning and night, they were at the 
end of their endurance. There were no troops to 
relieve them, while the Germans, after one battle, 
could be drawn back of the lines for a rest, as fresh 
troops took their places in the front line trenches. 

The memories of Leyden came to their help. A 
great deal of the land where the Germans stood was 
below sea level at high tide. Just as the Dutch had 
let in the sea to drive out the Spaniards, so the Bel- 
gians now sent out their engineers, who by opening 
the gates when the tide was high and closing them 
when it was low, began a systematic flooding of 
the land where the Germans had intrenched them- 
selves. 

On the 27th of October the Germans noticed a slow 
rising of the water in their trenches. On the next 



90 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

day it was still higher. They sent out their scouts 
to find the gates and close them, but the Belgians 
kept the secret too well. 

A furious German assault was now ordered to 
gain, at all costs, the dry land south of the Yser 
before the water should drive them out of their 
trenches altogether. But help had come at last. 
A new French division from the south relieved the 
jaded Belgians and took the brunt of the attack. 
It was a failure. The charging masses were sent 
reeling back. And now, with the water rapidly 
rising behind them, the Germans in turn were in 
danger. With a shout of triumph the French and 
Belgians charged in their turn and threw the Germans 
back across the Yser and into the water, now three 
or four feet deep. Numbers of them were drowned, 
for they fell into the canals, whose location could no 
longer be discovered. Abandoning their guns and 
baggage the Germans fled. For a space by the sea 
there was peace ! 

But in the end this trick of the Belgians only nar- 
rowed the righting front. Driven from the Yser, 
the Germans fell, with redoubled efforts, upon 
the little British army guarding the city of Ypres. 

Not only were the defenders outnumbered two to 
one, but they had guns that carried only half as far 
as those of the Germans. A battery of big German 
cannon could retire far beyond the range of the Brit- 
ish and French guns, and then demolish them at their 
leisure. Another advantage that the Germans had 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 91 

over the Allies was the fact that the great arms fac- 
tories of Germany had been producing shells in count- 
less numbers, all stored up for the day when Germany 
should decide to impose her civilization on an unwill- 
ing world. The English shells were so few that some 
guns were ordered to fire only once in four hours ! 

Against all these terrible odds the little British 
army, their faithful allies from India, and their 
gallant French comrades, struggled tenaciously. 
"The English are a stubborn people," the Kaiser 
had said, as he mourned their entrance into the war. 
But the Belgian and French soldiers, to the consterna- 
tion of their enemies and the joy and pride of the 
people in the allied lands, showed the same dogged, 
obstinate, enduring courage as the British. General 
Foch, late professor of the Military College, was put 
by Joffre in command of the armies of the north. 
The British, no less than the French, admired and 
trusted him. In spite of their grievous losses, in 
spite of their lack of guns and shells, in spite of the 
weary weeks in the rain-soaked trenches, the courage 
of the armies of Flanders burned high. 

Meanwhile, rage and impatience rilled the German 
commanders. They had said that they would break 
through and capture the Channel ports, and after 
three weeks of steady assaults, they were no nearer 
than at the beginning. The Kaiser himself came to 
make speeches to the troops ; the famous Prussian 
Guard, made up of the crack fighters of the whole 
German army, was brought up, and all the heavy guns 



92 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

on the north of the long battle line were gathered for 
one last grand assault. 

On the nth of November, there suddenly burst 
out a cannonade which made everything that had 
gone before seem like child's play. The British 
trenches in some places were simply blotted out by 
the infernal rain of steel. After so many shells had 
been hurled at them that it seemed as if no living 
thing could remain in the zone of fire, the guns 
suddenly ceased and fifteen regiments of the Prus- 
sian Guard, emerging from the woods that hid the 
German trenches, rushed on the double-quick toward 
the line where the English trenches had been. 

And then, wonder of wonders, the few who survived 
in the front trenches crawled out of their holes, and 
with rifle and machine gun riddled the advancing 
masses. 

Straight on the Germans came, however, in spite of 
fearful losses. Far away, out of reach of a stray Brit- 
ish shell, through his powerful glasses, the Kaiser was 
watching them. 

In three places they broke through. No more 
British in the way — the road to Calais was open. 
One battalion, in fact, was in a position to turn and 
take in the rear the British in the adjoining trench. 
But they had lost their officers — and there was 
nobody to tell them what to do, and so, like good 
obedient German soldiers, they did nothing ! Mean- 
while, help was at hand. From both sides the British 
rallied to fill the breach. Order was forgotten as 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 93 

German and Briton fought it out with cold steel, 
hand to hand. In the end British pluck and tenacity 
won, in spite of the superior numbers of the attacking 
forces. Back to their own trenches fled the shattered 
remains of the Kaiser's crack troops. 

The battalion that was waiting for orders finally 
got them — from a British officer. He told them to 
drop their arms and surrender. They obeyed ! 

The drive for the Channel ports was over. Six 
hundred thousand Germans, attacking on a front of 
less than thirty miles, although backed by the biggest 
guns in the world and supplied with countless shells, 
had been unable to drive out half their number of 
Allies. The German General Staff knew what their 
own soldiers could do, but it had never occurred to 
them that British, French, and Belgians might do as 
much, and a little bit more ! 

, Meanwhile Hindenburg, now commander-in-chief 
of the Austro-German armies on the eastern 
front, was seesawing back and forth with the Rus- 
sians. He had not more than two million men, of 
whom over two- thirds were Austrians, while the Rus- 
sian army opposed to him probably numbered three 
million. But the excellent system of railroads along 
the German and Austrian boundaries made it pos- 
sible for Hindenburg to shoot his troops around 
the slow-moving Russians, attacking them at unex- 
pected places, and always outnumbering them where 
the actual fighting was going on. There were few 
railroads in Russian Poland, and these did not run 



94 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

parallel to the boundary line. The wagon roads 
were poor, and it was very hard for the Russians to 
bring shells, guns, and ammunition in large enough 
quantities from Moscow and Petrograd. 

About the first of October, the Germans and Aus- 
trians with fresh troops and new guns made a rapid 
advance. They proposed to take the city of War- 
saw and drive the Russians out of Poland. But new 
Russian regiments were rushed up and the march of 
the invaders was stopped just west of the Polish 
capital. A fierce battle took place, and the Austro- 
German forces had to retreat. On their heels came 
the triumphant Russians. They surrounded for a 
second time an Austrian army in the big fortress of 
Przemysl (prshemi'sl) , swarmed over the Carpathian 
Mountains into the plain of Hungary, approached 
within a few miles of Cracow and even invaded the 
German states of Posen and Silesia. 

But again the strategic railways came to Hin- 
denburg's aid. It was the middle of November 
and the great drive on the Channel ports had just 
failed. Several German divisions from northern 
France were hurried into trains and hurled eastward 
to stop this new Russian invasion. Rushing them 
around the northern and southern borders of Poland, 
Hindenburg struck the flanks of the Russian armies 
such heavy blows that he stopped their forward march 
and sent them reeling back. A great wing of the 
southern army was surrounded and Berlin began to 
celebrate a wonderful victory. But the celebration 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 95 

was started a little too soon. The Grand Duke 
Nicholas rushed to the scene of battle the garrisons 
of the near-by forts (like Gallieni and the taxicab 
men) and flung them on the rear of the encircling 
German army. The Germans in turn were caught 
between two fires. The surrounded armies on both 
sides cut themselves out, but the losses were terrible. 
The traitorous Rennenkampf a second time failed 
his chief ; otherwise there might have been a great 
German disaster. Once more Hindenburg struck for 
Warsaw, but once more he had to confess defeat. 

The year 19 14 closed with the Germans holding 
a considerable part of western Russian Poland, but, 
on the other hand, the Russians had not released 
their hold on East Prussia, and they held almost 
all Austrian Galicia, as well as the mountain 
barrier between this state and the Hungarian plain. 

In the midst of all the fighting among the men of 
the five great nations, we have completely ignored 
the fortunes of little Serbia. We last heard that the 
Austrians were bombarding Belgrade, and flinging 
their troops across the river which separated the 
two countries. For some weeks the Austrians con- 
tinued to advance, devastating the country and 
driving before them the Serbian troops. But the 
rapid successes of the Russians in Galicia had kept 
the Vienna government from sending more troops 
for the ' ' punishment ' ' of the Serbs. The little group 
of fighters from the South gathered all their forces, 
fell upon the Austrians at the river Jadar (ya'dar) and 



96 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

put them to a disgraceful rout. Joined by their kins- 
men from the little Serb state of Montenegro, they 
now began an invasion of Bosnia, where lived two 
million Serbs who longed to be free of Austrian rule. 
This happened in the latter part of August and the 
first half of September. 

About the middle of September, the Russians 
having been beaten by Hindenburg, the Austrians 
breathed more easily for a time, and began a second 
invasion of the little kingdom to the south. This 
was on a bigger scale than the first attempt, and made 
deeper inroads into the country. The little Serbian 
army fought desperately, and the people of the in- 
vaded lands lost no opportunity to harass and annoy 
the invaders. These, in turn, particularly the Hun- 
garian troops, treated the inhabitants with barbarous 
cruelty, revenging the murder of one Hungarian 
soldier by the execution, in cold blood, of the inhabi- 
tants of a whole village. 

The retreating Serbian troops had few guns, and 
were almost out of ammunition. At last, by way of 
Greece, fresh ammunition came. The Russians were 
again striking heavy blows in the north, and some 
of the Hungarian troops had to be rushed up to pre- 
vent the invasion of their own country. 

The Serbs rose to the occasion. Their aged king 
called together as many as could hear him and made 
them a stirring speech. ' ' Heroes, ' ' said he, " you have 
sworn an oath to defend me and another to defend 
your country. I am an old, broken man on the edge 



WHERE GERMANY MISCALCULATED 97 

of the grave. I release you from your oath to me. 
If you have come to the end of your endurance, go 
home ! I am going forward, to drive the hated in- 
vaders out of my land or to die by an Austrian 
bullet." And he gave the order to advance. With 
a yell of fierce desperation, the Serbs rallied for an 
attack. With the old king leading them, as he had 
promised, they stormed the Austrian center. On 
December 3, everywhere along the line the Austrians 
were in headlong flight. 

By the 14th, the retreating army had fled across the 
Danube, and the next day King Peter, at the head 
of his troops, reentered Belgrade, his capital city, 
amid the wild enthusiasm of his liberated people. 
The little "punishing expedition" had not proved 
the conspicuous success that Vienna and Berlin had 
expected ! 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why did the Germans expect Belgium to grant them free 
passage for their armies ? 

2. Why was it a great help to France to have Belgium oppose the 
Germans ? 

3. Why were the Germans, as they said, "in a state of necessity" ? 

4. Why were the Germans so surprised when Great Britain de- 
clared war ? 

5. How does the "scrap of paper" incident reflect upon Junker 
honor ? 

6. How did Great Britain's entry change Germany's plans? 

7. Why did the Germans feel so much hatred for England? 

8. How did Germany hope to bring Italy into the war? 

9. Why had France feared a German invasion? 

10. What was the effect of the Tzar's order against vodka? 



98 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

11. Why was Hindenburg called from retirement? 

12. What did the Grand Duke Nicholas do in the first six weeks? 

13. What was the result of Rennenkampf's treachery? 

14. How did the "Old Contemptibles " gain their name? 

15. What was the feeling of the French during the retreat before 
the Germans? 

16. What was Joffre's plan and what was the plan of the Germans? 

17. How was Von Kluck trapped? 

18. What was the result of the First Battle of the Marne? 

19. How did the Battle of the Aisne become a siege? 

20. Why was Germany able to put bigger armies into the field than 
Great Britain and France combined? 

21. How did the Belgians hold the line of the Yser River? 

22. What saved the Channel ports? 

23. How did King Peter of Serbia revive the courage of his men? 



CHAPTER V 
The Seven Seas and the Six Continents 

The great review of the Grand Fleet. — Enter the submarine. — 
How Germany seized from Japan the spoils of the Chinese war. — 
Japan's revenge. — The three men who ruled Turkey. — ■ The 
Goeben and the Breslau. — The unprovoked attack on Russia. — 
A new kind of jehad. — The expeditions into Egypt and Meso- 
potamia. — The German raiders. — The battle in the Pacific. 
— The revenge of the British. — The Boers of South Africa. — 
The loss of the German colonies. — Contraband of war. — The 
submarine attacks on merch ntmen. — The coast raiders and 
their punishment. 

It was Winston Churchill who did it ; not Winston 
Churchill, the American, author of many popular 
books, but his namesake in Great Britain, great- 
great-great-great-grandson of the famous British 
general John Churchill, Duke of Marlborough. 

If the British fleet had been scattered when war 
broke out, so that the Germans, by rushing out with 
their whole fleet, could have destroyed the British 
ships a few at a time, Winston Churchill, as First 
Lord of the Navy (or Admiralty, as they call it in 
England) would have been the person blamed. But 
Winston Churchill had called the Grand Fleet to- 
gether for a great review, in the latter part of July, 
and after the review was over he had refused to let 
them separate again, for the Austrian note had been 

99 



IOO 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



sent to Serbia and — well, it would do no harm to be 
on the safe side. 

And so, on August 4, when Germany refused to 
draw T back her troops from Belgian soil, the waters of 

the North Sea were 
ploughed by the mighty 
dreadnoughts and cruis- 
ers of Great Britain, 
and the Kaiser's sailors 
who had so long clam- 
ored for w the Day " when 
they might be allowed 
to attack the British 
navy, thought better of 
it, and concluded that the 
Kiel Canal was a very 
healthful spot in which 
to stay, after all ! 

True, German war- 
ships did venture out 
every now and then, to a 
short distance and in 
small numbers. But even this proved to be dan- 
gerous. For in the latter part of August some 
German cruisers, w T ith destroyers and submarines 
in company with them, were chasing two British 
light cruisers and some small torpedo boats when 
up came Admiral Beatty (ba'ty) with some larger 
British ships. Three German cruisers were quickly 
set on fire and sunk by the well-aimed fire of 




Keystone View Co., Inc 

Winston Churchill 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 101 

Beatty's flagship Lion and her sister ships. There 
was considerable danger from the German subma- 
rine boats, but Beatty and his captains took the 
risk and returned in safety. 

It was not long, however, before the Germans had 
their revenge. In the latter part of September, three 
British armored cruisers, sister ships, built all alike, 
were struck in quick succession by the torpedoes of a 
single German submarine. They were the Rogue, 
the Cressy, and the Aboukir* The Aboukir was 
struck first, and the others could have escaped had 
they taken warning. They could not bear to leave 
the men from their sister ship struggling in the water, 
however, so they rushed to the rescue, and to their 
doom. A Dutch captain, whose sailing vessel at 
that moment was crossing the North Sea, was called 
up on deck by one of his men, who said that there 
were three British warships in sight. He looked, 
but could see only two. A moment later he glanced 
in that direction again, and there was only one. 
Gasping with astonishment, he saw the last ship heel 
over slowly and disappear beneath the waves. A thou- 
sand gallant men would never serve England again. 

A great peril lurked in the waters around Great 
Britain. The British fleet grew cautious. New 
boats were built to hunt submarines, aircraft were 
perfected which could look down into the depths 
and sight them, but still the losses kept up. Three 
more warships in 19 14 met the same fate as the 
Cressy and her sisters. 



102 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Let us leave European waters for the time being 
and see what was happening in the Far East. You 
will recall a reference, in Chapter I, to a threat of 
the "mailed fist" directed against Japan and 
China. In 1895, after Japan had been the victor 
in a short war with China, she proposed to annex 
the Liaotung (lee ah'o tung') peninsula, a strip 
of land extending southward into the Gulf of 
Pechili. 

Certain European countries, however, especially 
Germany and Russia, had hoped to secure part of 
this land for themselves. Chinese trade promised 
to be profitable, and they did not propose to let 
Japan have too much of it. Accordingly Germany 
and Russia each warned Japan that she would not 
be permitted to keep the peninsula. 

The German note was very polite, but contained a 
slightly veiled threat. It said that the German gov- 
ernment ' ' hoped for the best interests of peace in the 
Far East that Japan would be willing to withdraw 
from the occupied territory." Japan had no inten- 
tion of fighting Russia and Germany combined, so, 
in the " interests of peace," she sullenly gave up the 
spoils of her victory. 

Only two years after this, in an outbreak against 
European peoples, who were turning many China- 
men away from the religion of their fathers, two 
German missionaries in China were killed. They 
belonged to a religious order all members of which 
had been driven out of Germany by the Kaiser, but 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 103 

this made no difference. Their memory suddenly 
became very dear to him. 

The German admiral in the Far East landed his 
marines and took forcible possession of Kiaochow 
peninsula. The Kaiser notified the Chinese that as 
a payment for the death of these two Germans, he 
intended to keep possession of Kiaochow, one of the 
best harbors and most valuable trading ports of all 
China. The Chinese were helpless in the matter, 
and the Germans stayed. In the seventeen years 
that followed they made of the city of Tsingtau, at 
the end of the peninsula, a model German colony. 

The Japanese, meanwhile, had not forgotten that 
the Germans had done to China just what they had 
forbidden Japan to do. Accordingly, on the 16th of 
August, 1 9 14, when the World War was just two 
weeks old, and the great English fleet was sweeping 
the sea clear of German ships, Japan sent a polite 
note to Germany suggesting that Kiaochow be turned 
over to the Japanese for safe-keeping, and hoping 
"for the best interests of peace in the Far East that 
Germany would be willing to withdraw from the 
occupied territory." 

Imagine the rage of the Germans ! They had spent 
millions of dollars on this colony and were expecting 
great things of it, and now when it was about to be 
taken from them they were helpless to prevent it. 

They consoled themselves by telling each other all 
the fearful things they would do to Japan, after they 
had finished off Russia, France, and Great Britain. 



104 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

The garrison of Tsingtau fought well. Japanese 
troops shut them off from any possible retreat to 
the westward. On all other sides of them stood 
the warships of Great Britain and Japan, pounding, 
pounding with their heavy guns. For two months 
they held out, but it was only a question of time. 
On the sixth of November a joint attack by the Brit- 
ish and Japanese captured the most important forts, 
and the next day the garrison surrendered. One 
Austrian cruiser and six small German warships 
which had lain in the harbor were sunk by their 
own crews to prevent their capture by the enemy. 
The fruits of two decades of extortion and violence 
were lost. 

Again the scene of our story shifts, this time to the 
Near East. Baron von Wangenheim, at Constanti- 
nople, was by far the most influential of the ambas- 
sadors. He represented Germany, and Germany, in 
the minds of the men who controlled the Turkish 
government, was the one strong friend that they 
possessed. These men were none too sure of " hold- 
ing their jobs," for they owed their rise to force, 
and deserved no good at the hands of the Turk- 
ish people. While there was a Sultan on the throne 
and a Grand Vizier acting, to all appearances, as his 
prime minister, the real power was in the hands of 
three men : Talaat (ta'lat) , Enver, and Djemal 
(dja'mal). Behind them was the so-called "Com- 
mittee of Union and Progress," a crowd of active 
leaders who ' ' bossed ' ' the ' ' Young Turk ' 'party. The 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 105 



" Young Turks " had driven one Sultan off the throne, 
and had the present one so cowed that they forced 
him to sign an order for the beheading of his own 
son-in-law, who was 
thought to be plot- 
ting against the 
"Committee of 
Union and Prog- 
ress." Talaat was 
a big, powerful man, 
who had fought and 
bullied his way to 
power. In his early 
days he had been a 
telegraph operator 
and before that a 
mail-carrier. En- 
ver, too, came from 
the common people. 
He was small, but 
cool and resolute, 
and was a dead shot 
with a pistol. Dje- 

mal was noted for his cold-blooded cruelty to 
those who stood in his way. 

Such were the three men who really ruled Turkey. 
As Minister of War, Enver controlled the army; 
Talaat, Minister of the Interior, controlled the levy- 
ing of the taxes ; Djemal, Minister of Marine, was 
in charge of the navy. 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Talaat Pasha in Berlin 



io6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Wangenheim and Liman von Sanders, the German 
general who had been drilling the Turkish army, 
had persuaded the three "bosses" that their only 
chance of retaining their power was to join forces 
with the German war machine. The three knew that 
the great majority of the better class of Turks de- 
spised them, and they felt the need of German help. 

The Germans, in turn, were using these adventurers 
simply for their own purposes. The Young Turks, 
knowing that the victory of Russia in the great 
war meant an end to their hold on Constantinople, 
were ready, at the beginning, to throw their lot 
in with Germany and Austria. When the Goeben 
(gu'ben) and the Breslau (bres'low), two power- 
ful German warships, were caught at the beginning 
of the war in the Mediterranean and were chased 
by the British and French fleets, they made for the 
Dardanelles. 

The Allies had not thought of guarding this strait, 
for it was neutral water, and under the rules Turkey 
would have to force them to "move on" within 
twenty-four hours. If they moved into the Black 
Sea, the Russian warships were waiting for them. 
If they came out into the ^Egean, there were the 
English and French. They did neither ! When the 
twenty-four hours had gone by, the French and 
British Ambassadors at Constantinople called on 
the Turks to order them away and were told that the 
two ships had been "sold" to Turkey. 

The Allies knew that the Turks were lying about the 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 107 

"sale" of the ships, but they were afraid to press 
the case, for fear Turkey should come out openly 
to join the Germans. 

It was the latter part of October. Things were 




Keystone View Co.. Inc. 



The Goeben off Constantinople 



going badly for Germany. The great drive into 
Poland had been repulsed with slaughter. The 
sacrifice of her best troops against the thin Franco- 
Belgian- British line in Flanders (the southwestern 
corner of Belgium) was gaining her no ground. The 
Austrians had been thrown out of Serbia. Wan- 
genheim did not want Turkey to enter the war, if 
Germany and Austria could win without her, for 



108 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

if Turkey entered the Turks would demand a share 
of the plunder when the war was over. But things 
were getting serious. Something was needed to 
cheer the drooping spirits of the German people. 

On October 29, the Sultan Selim and the Midullu, 
once known as the Goeben and the Breslau, flying 
Turkish flags, but manned and commanded by their 
own German officers and crews, steamed across the 
Black Sea and, bombarded, without any warning, 
the Russian ports of Odessa and Theodosia. 

Panic seized the older men in the Turkish govern- 
ment. They saw themselves drawn into the war 
on the losing side, and could look ahead to the final 
end of Turkish rule in Constantinople as a result of 
this act. 

There was a hastily called meeting of the Cabinet, 
and the Grand Vizier and other old governmental 
leaders wished to disclaim all responsibility for the 
act of the German Admiral. Talaat and Enver, 
however, were bent on war. They pointed out 
that Turkey had already sworn to the Entente (the 
French name for the English-French-Russian alliance) 
that Germany had ''sold" these ships to Turkey, 
so that their acts now could not be disavowed. Fi- 
nally, Enver, in an icy voice, cut the discussion short 
by saying, "As Minister of War, I take full respon- 
sibility for this act. If anybody wishes to discuss 
it further, I shall be pleased to go into the matter 
with him alone." He laid a pistol on the table, 
looking around to see who would take up his chal- 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 109 



lenge. The man was a dead shot — it would have 
been suicide for any of the opposing party to fight 
a duel with him — so he won — won by his nerve and 
the timidity of the others. 

Russia promptly declared war. France and Brit- 
ain followed her. A great Turkish army started 
for the Caucasus district, 
another for Egypt, where 
the British were in control, 
although Egypt was still 
supposed to be part of the 
Turkish empire, and still 
paid tribute to Constan- 
tinople. 

You will remember that 
the Kaiser had counted on 
a " jehad" or holy war 
of the Mohammedans 
against the Christians. 
There were millions of 
these followers of the 
Prophet in the lands 

ruled over by Britain, France, and Russia. It was 
expected that through all northern Africa, India, 
and Turkestan the true believers of the Moham- 
medan faith would rise up at the command of the 
Sheik-ul-Islam, the mighty head of the church, to 
slaughter their Christian neighbors. 

The Sheik, obedient to the command of the 
Committee of Union and -Progress, as voiced 




Enver Pasha 



HO HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

by the Sultan of Turkey, proclaimed the jehad. But 
it was a peculiar kind of jehad — different from all 
other jehads of the past. It appeared that there 
were two special kinds of giaours (heathen) who must 
not be killed. The true Mohammedan must slay all 
Christians — except the German and Austrian Chris- 
tians ; — for some reason or other the jehad did not 
apply to them ! In fact, the command to kill the in- 
fidel English and Russians, in many cases, was given 
to the Turks by an infidel Prussian officer. 

Do you wonder that the jehad failed ? The fa- 
natic, the one kind of man to whom this order would 
appeal, could see no difference between German and 
Austrian unbelievers and any other kind. He wanted 
to kill all ; — so this order seemed to him irregular 
and improper. The sensible Mohammedan knew 
that his French and English rulers had treated 
him well. They were in trouble — attacked by 
some "outcaste" Germans, and needed his help. 
The Bedouins and Moors in the French army, the 
Indians in the British army, remained true to their 
rulers. Once more the Germans had made a 
poor guess. 

An expedition was fitted out to reconquer Egypt, 
under the command of Djemal. 

Meanwhile a British force had landed at the mouth 
of the Shat-el-Arab, as the lower part of the Eu- 
phrates River is called, and was slowly making its 
way up the valley of Mesopotamia. Its aim was 
finally to capture Bagdad, the great city on the 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS in 

Tigris, the eastern end of the great Middle-Europe 
railway. 

The Turk was going to have trouble in guard- 
ing his own territory. England had command of 
the seas and from scattered parts of the globe 
came her sturdy sons, responding to the call of 
the mother land. Australians, New Zealanders, 
Canadians, Indians, all were eager to enlist. This 
Mesopotamian army was made up largely of troops, 
both native and European, who had served in 
India. 

The command of the sea helped wonderfully. 
British troop ships and merchant vessels came and 
went, unhindered. True, a few German vessels, 
for the first three or four months of the war, still 
roamed the sea, steaming desperately from harbor 
to harbor and playing hide and seek with British, 
Australian, and Japanese boats. Two cruisers, one 
the Emden, the other the Karlsruhe, sailed about, 
capturing and sinking the Allies' merchantmen and 
doing a great deal of damage. Both finally went 
down, the Emden sunk by the Australian cruiser 
Sydney in the Indian Ocean. 

A squadron of five strong German cruisers kept 
together as they crossed the Pacific Ocean. On 
November i , they fell in with a fleet of British ships, 
three cruisers and an armed passenger steamer, and 
immediately gave battle. The Germans had the 
bigger guns and the heavier armor. They had the 
advantage of the light, for they were on the dark side 



H2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

of the British, while the latter were plainly visible 
to them against a bright horizon. The battle was 
short. Two British cruisers went down, carrying 
to death most of their officers and men and Admiral 
Sir Christopher Cradock, commander of the fleet. 
The third cruiser and the liner escaped. 

There was one other British ship in South American 
waters. This was the battleship Canopus. The 
British now laid a clever trap for the German 
squadron. A wireless message was sent out to the 
Canopus ordering her to report to the Falkland 
Islands the first week in December. As was in- 
tended, the Germans picked this message out of 
the air. They took the bait. The Canopus had 
heavier guns than any one of the five German 
cruisers, but would be no match for the five com- 
bined. The German squadron passed through the 
Straits of Magellan on the track of the Canopus, 
headed for the Falklands. 

In the meantime a fast squadron of two powerful 
battle cruisers and four lighter cruisers had left Eng- 
land on November 10. They arrived at the Falk- 
land Islands on the 7th of December, and found 
the Canopus there to join them. The trap was set. 

Next morning the lookout announced that strange 
warships were approaching. These were the German 
cruisers who, having learned beyond question that the 
Canopus was there, had assembled to destroy her. 

Yes, she was there, without doubt. The Germans 
could see her tops across the tongue of land that 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 113 

separated the harbor from the ocean, and as they 
came within range, her big guns opened fire. On 
came the Germans: — they had expected this. But 
something else besides the Canopus was now visible 
in the harbor, and from another point broke out the 
fire of big guns, as the Inflexible and Invincible be- 
gan to speak. The Germans turned, and ran for 
their lives. The hunters had become the hunted. 
After them raced the avengers, swift in their wake. 

Recognizing at once that he had fallen into a trap, 
the German Admiral, Count von Spee (shpay) or- 
dered his squadron to scatter. His two heavily 
armored cruisers, the Scharnhorst and the Gneisenau, 
which, he hoped, might defend themselves, kept 
together, while the Dresden, the Niirnberg, and the 
Leipzig took different courses. 

But the British scattered, too. The fast Carnar- 
von and the two battle cruisers kept after the two 
larger ships of the enemy, while the light cruisers 
chased the smaller three. With the light British 
squadron was the Glasgow, a survivor of Admiral 
Cradock's fleet, now helping to avenge her lost mates. 

The fight was short. The Scharnhorst and the 
Gneisenau, finding that their speed would not save 
them, turned to put up the best fight that they could. 
As they were soon seen to be burning and sinking, 
the British ceased fire, and lowered all boats to pick 
up the survivors. 

In a short time both had gone down, and the 
British boats were busy rescuing the German 



H4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

sailors who were struggling in the chilly waters of 
the South Atlantic. 

Down, too, went the Leipzig and the N umber g, 
overtaken and sunk by the stronger British ships. 
The Dresden alone, thanks to better speed and to the 
different direction which she followed, was able to 
make a South American port. She was later caught 
and sunk in Chilean waters. 

Admiral Sturdee had avenged the disastrous 
defeat of his friend Cradock, and the seas were once 
more swept clean of the German flag. 

One of the great hopes of the Germans after Great 
Britain entered the war was that subject peoples in 
British colonies or in countries under British protec- 
tion would rise in rebellion. 

Fear of such uprisings in Ireland, India, Egypt, 
and South Africa had been counted on, in Berlin, to 
keep England neutral. But many of the Irish forgot 
their differences for the time being, and the In- 
dians and the Egyptians loyally stood by their 
protectors. 

The troops of the Union of South Africa, led by 
General Botha, who thirteen years before had been 
one of the best generals of the Boers in their war 
against Great Britain, started an invasion of the 
German colony of Southwest Africa. 

But some of these Dutch farmers were obstinate and 
stubborn in their hatred of their conquerors. The 
leader of the group who refused to be placated was 
the famous General Christian De Wet, who, together 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 115 

with Botha and Cronje, had been one of the chief 
leaders in the war against the British. 

No sooner had Botha and his loyal troops started 
on their conquest of the near-by German colony, 
than this chieftain, aided by Colonels Beyers and 
Maritz, raised, the standard of revolt, and called on 
all Boers to rise against the tyranny of Great Britain. 

Great rejoicing took place in Berlin when this 
news reached the Germans. The British empire 
was going to fall to pieces at last. But alas for Ger- 
man hopes ! The average Boer farmer was thoroughly 
satisfied with the treatment that Great Britain had 
given him. They had allowed him the use of his lan- 
guage in the schools ; they had given him the right to 
govern himself. In fact, the Prime Minister and the 
majority of the government officials were Boers. 
He saw nothing to gain by enlisting in a hopeless 
cause, led by the sullen, hot-headed De Wet. The 
latter gathered a few kindred spirits around him, 
but the great majority of the Boers stood firm. 
Botha turned back ; and sorrowfully he and General 
Smuts, with their loyal troops, surrounded and cap- 
tured the little band led by their former comrades. 
De Wet tried to break through the ring and was shot. 
Beyers was drowned while trying to ford a swollen 
river. Maritz was captured. 

The rebellion at an end, the South African troops 
once more turned west and in a short time had 
rounded up and captured the German forces in the 
Southwest African colony. 



n6 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Meanwhile, what was happening to the rest of the 
German colonial empire ? In losing Southwest Africa 
the Germans had lost a province with an area as 
large as Germany itself. There were three other 
colonies in Africa that were to follow. Togoland 
had been quickly captured. The Cameroon country 
is much larger and was harder to get through. 
French and British forces, however, worked together ; 
and by July, 191 6, German resistance in this great 
territory had ceased. 

German East Africa, however, proved a much 
harder nut to crack. Belgian troops .from the Congo 
cleaned up Lake Tanganyika while the British from 
the north and east advanced slowly southward, 
driving the Germans before them. 

In the Pacific the German possessions were cap- 
tured, one by one, by the Australians, the Japanese, 
or the British. By the end of the first eleven months 
of fighting, the great colonial empire of Germany had 
crumbled almost to nothing. All that was left was a 
little piece of the Cameroon country and a small 
corner of German East Africa, and these were grow- 
ing steadily smaller. 

Sea power was surely making itself felt. England 
and France were able to buy in the markets of the 
world, while the trade of Germany was limited to 
Switzerland, Denmark, and Holland, small countries 
adjoining her territory, and to Sweden, across the 
Baltic. Until 1870, Germany had been able to grow, 
within her own boundaries, enough food for the whole 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 117 

nation. After this time, however, the rapid in- 
crease in her population, and the growth of the 
factory system, with the resulting shift of people 
from the farms to the cities, made it necessary to im- 
port about one- third of her food. Austria-Hungary 
had no food to export, neither had the four small 
countries that could trade with Germany. 

The result was that the Germans, by offering high 
prices for it, were able to persuade Holland and 
Denmark to sell food to them, which meant, of course, 
that these countries in turn had to buy from the 
United States, the Argentine Republic, and neutral 
countries. 

The rules of war as observed in the past allowed 
the fighting nations to make a list of articles called 
"contraband of war" which could be seized, even 
when found on neutral ships, if they were known 
to be supplies for the enemy. This list usually 
included guns and ammunition of all kinds and 
materials for making these. Also food which had 
been sold to the government of the enemy for use 
in the army could be included. In this war the 
Allies made a list of contraband articles much longer 
than ever before . Automobile trucks were a very neces- 
sary part of the German war machine, so rubber, as 
the material from which tires were made, was put on 
the list. So was gasoline, or any oil from which this 
could be made. Cotton came next, for great quanti- 
ties of this were needed to make guncotton and other 
explosives. 



n8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

By December, 19 14, the German war lords knew 
that they were doomed to fight a long, hard war. 
The leaves had fallen from the trees, but the soldiers 
were a long way from home, and further yet from a 
victorious peace. They had gambled and lost, as 
far as their plan to win the war in one swift campaign 
was concerned. They must now fight on until 
their enemies, tired of the struggle, should be ready 
to make peace on terms that would allow Germany 
to keep part, at least, of her plunder. Then to get 
ready for the next war. "Next time," said one of 
the German generals, "we shall lay in a supply of 
cotton, copper, and oil to last ^ve years." 

But the Allies had no intention of allowing Ger- 
many a chance to quit, when she was ahead in the 
game, in order to gather her strength for the next war. 
To their minds there must never be a "next war." 

By this time the food problem in Germany began 
to worry the Junkers. They proceeded to seize all 
wheat, and to give it out in little portions at a time, 
allowing each family only so much a day, and saving 
the rest for the army. 

At once Great Britain declared wheat to be 
"contraband of war," and her warships began 
stopping all vessels that were headed for neutral 
ports, carrying grain meant for German buyers. 
These ships were taken to British ports, where a 
court decided what should be a fair price for the 
government to pay for the cargoes. 

Germany came back with an order, telling the 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 119 

world that her submarines would sink any ship that 
was found carrying food to Great Britain, no matter 
which nation owned it. This was going a little too 
far, and the United States, which had protested 
against British seizures of American vessels, sent 
a sharp warning to Germany that this sort of thing 
could not go on. Germany promised to sink no 
ships without warning, and to give the crews a 
chance to escape in the lifeboats. Still, this was 
high-handed piracy, and a violation of all the rules 
of war as respected by every civilized nation up to 
this time. 

Germany was making new rules and paying no 
attention to the old ones. A few days after the fleet 
of von Spee had gone down under the fire of Sturdee's 
guns, a squadron of swift ships stole across the 
North Sea under cover of darkness, and bombarded 
three peaceful little coast towns in England, which 
had no forts protecting them, and should therefore, 
under all agreements between nations, have been 
safe from attack. A great shell exploded in a woman's 
kitchen, as she was getting her husband's breakfast. 
She and her baby were killed instantly, and her 
little girl frightfully wounded. About a hundred 
people in the three towns were killed or wounded. 
Before the British fleet could come to the rescue the 
Germans had fled. The raid was planned to throw 
panic into the British and make them eager for peace. 
Another bad German guess. 



THE SEVEN SEAS AND THE SIX CONTINENTS 121 

A cold rage filled the British people. Men who had 
been rather half-hearted about the war up to this 
time now threw themselves into it heart and soul, 
eager to ''square the account with the baby-killers." 
The recruiting offices were thronged with men anxious 
to enlist. 

The great fleet, ashamed of this one failure to 
protect its home shores, redoubled its watchfulness. 

A month later, in January, 191 5, came the navy's 
chance. At daybreak on the morning of the 24th, 
Admiral Beatty, in command of a squadron of five 
fast battle cruisers, and accompanied by four lighter 
warships, caught sight of a German fleet of eight 
ships. Three of these were fast battle cruisers, one 
a slower armored cruiser and the others lighter ships. 

There were forty big guns in each fleet, but the 
British were the heavier, and the Germans, who had 
been on their way to make another raid on the 
English coast, turned and ran. There followed a 
running fight for five hours, in the course of which the 
German armored cruiser Blucher was sunk with all 
on board. Two other German ships were damaged, 
as was one of the British vessels. As the British 
drew near to the German coast and submarines 
appeared, Admiral Beatty thought it prudent to turn 
back. 

However, the people of the coast towns were 
avenged. The Blucher had been one of the ships 
that took part in the first raid, so no sympathy was 
wasted on her. The raids were at an end. 



122 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Over the seven seas, surrounding with their water 
the six great continents, floated the flags of Great 
Britain and her Allies ! 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. How might the German navy have had a chance for victory 
over the British at the outset of the war ? 

2. What great weapon could the Germans use against the British ? 

3. How did Germany get a foothold in China? 

4. Why was Japan very angry at the Germans ? 

5. How did Japan use her chance to square her account? 

6. How did Talaat and Enver hold their power? 

7. What do you think of the way the Turks acted toward the 
Allies in the matter of the two German warships? 

8. Why did Wangenheim first wish to keep the Turks out of the 
war, then later wish to thrust them into it? 

9. How was the latter brought about? 

10. What was expected of the jehad? 

11. Why did it fail ? 

12. What was the reason for the British expedition into Mesopo- 
tamia ? 

13. Why did the Germans win the naval battle in the Pacific? 

14. How did the British trap Admiral von Spee? 

15. Why was the Boer rebellion a failure? 

16. Why did Germany lose her colonies? 

17. What is meant by "contraband of war"? 

18. Why was the list of contraband articles increased? 

19. Had Great Britain the right to put wheat on the contraband 
list? 

20. Was Germany justified in sinking merchant ships by submarine 
attack ? 

21. Had Germany the right to attack unfortified towns? 

22. What effect had the raids on the British people? 



CHAPTER VI 
The Year 191 5 

Kitchener's prediction. — The fall of Przemysl. — Winter in the 
Carpathians. — Russia, rich in food but poor in munitions. — 
The fleets at the Dardanelles. — The forcing of the straits. — The 
fatal 1 8th of March. — If they had but known. — Gallipoli and 
Suvla Bay. — Disaster on the Dunajec. — The great retreat. — 
Italy grows restive. — Her declaration of war. — Joffre's "nib- 
bling." — Neuve Chapelle. — A new horror of war. — Loos and 
Champagne. — Bulgaria to the highest bidder. — Venizelos, Del- 
casse, Constantine, and the Kaiser's sister. — The fate of Serbia. 
— The British in Mesopotamia and Egypt. — Germany's sub- 
marine campaign. — The Lusitania. — Belgium : Hoover and 
Whitlock. 

Lord Kitchener of Khartoom, hero of the Eng- 
lish expedition into Upper Egypt and the Soudan 
in 1898, and conqueror of the Boers in 1901, had 
said, in August, 191 4, that the war would last at 
least three years. Few believed him at the time, — 
the Germans, because their program called for a six 
weeks' smash to finish France, and another two 
months to dispose of Russia. When the victory of 
the Marne wrecked this plan, many English and 
French military men believed that Germany would 
soon ask for peace. But as summer wore into au- 
tumn, and autumn became winter ; — as the battle 
of the Aisne settled down to trench warfare, with 

two parallel lines running across Belgium and France 

123 



124 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



from the North Sea to Switzerland, people began to 
think that perhaps Kitchener was right. 

The year 191 4 had closed with the armies on the 
western front deadlocked in the same trenches 




■■mbmi German trenches 

\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\m British " 

, French " 

— .-— International Boundaries 



THE LINE OF TRENCHES 
FROM SWITZERLAND TO THE SEA Thali J, n | 

3! 



DECEMBER 31st, 1914 



Williams Engraving Co., N.T.^ ^^ 



where they had stood on October 15. On the 
Polish front, the line of battle had moved back 
and forth and the trenches were not so strongly 
and deeply made, nor so lasting, but the end of the 
year found the Russians holding a little of East 
Prussia, found the Germans and Austrians in the 



THE YEAR 1915 125 

western part of Russian Poland, and the Russians 
in possession of all Austrian Galicia except the 
extreme western end, around Cracow, and the fortress 
of Przemysl, where 125,000 Austrians were closely 
surrounded. Twice the advance of Hindenburg to 
the north had forced the Russians to give up the 
siege, but twice they had come back to it, and since 
early in December the ring around the doomed 
fortress had not been broken. 

After several determined assaults, beaten back 
with severe losses, the Russian commanders settled 
down to wait for the slower but surer method of 
starving out the garrison. Austria made several 
desperate efforts to bring up an army of relief, but 
this never got within twenty miles of the doomed 
town. Airplanes flew into it up to the day of its 
surrender, but they could not carry food enough 
for the generals alone, much less for the whole besieged 
army. 

On the twenty-second of March the garrison, 
reduced to 120,000 men, could hold out no longer. 
The white flag was raised, and the victorious Russians 
celebrated their greatest military triumph since the 
day when they drove the great Napoleon from 
Moscow. 

A quarter of a million men were thus let loose to 
join the other Russians on the Austrian front. These 
were the besiegers of Przemysl, who, with their com- 
rades, were soon threatening to break through the 
passes of the Carpathian Mountains and pour out 



126 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

into the fertile plains of Hungary. This would have 
been a terrible blow for the Central Fowers. Half 
their food came from these plains, and it would have 
meant starvation during the coming winter if these 
wheatfields had been in the hands of the Russians. 
The situation was dark for Berlin and Vienna. 

Meanwhile, the forces of treason were at work in 
Russia, — undoing all the splendid achievements of 
the Grand Duke and his patient, loyal soldiers. 
The great supply of men was Russia's one strength. 
She had neither guns enough nor sufficient ammuni- 
tion to equip them. They froze to death in the 
snows of the lofty Carpathians, because they were 
poorly furnished with clothing and warm food. Trai- 
tors were doing their best to keep food and shells and 
other supplies from reaching them. The greatest 
munition factory in Russia was blown up by a traitor 
in German pay. Another great factory, whose owners 
were men of German descent, was turning out 
shells, but by the orders of its manager was con- 
demning as unfit and throwing away three out of 
every hve that were made. It is not hard to 
guess who paid for these shells. Time after time 
the Russians charged the German and Austrian 
machine guns through a hail of lead, eager to reach 
their foe because, their ammunition gone, they had 
as weapons only their bayonets and the butts of 
their rifles. 

Russia had abundant food — the black earth 
district just north of the Black Sea is the richesj; 



THE YEAR 1915 127 

wheat-growing region in the world. But how to 
get this wheat out to her hungry allies, France and 
Britain, and how to receive from them shells in 
return was a difficult problem. 

If Turkey had not entered the war, the wheat 
could have moved out through the Bosporus and the 
Dardanelles. But the straits were closed. The 
Turkish army in the Caucasus, commanded by our 
young Napoleon, * Enver Pasha, had met a disas- 
trous defeat the first week in January, so that Tur- 
key's success in a military way amounted to nothing, 
so far. Nevertheless, by holding the Dardanelles, 
she was doing Germany a tremendous service ; and 
the Allies were determined to break her hold on the 
Dardanelles. 

Toward the latter part of February, while the 
crowds in Berlin were still celebrating a new vic- 
tory of Hindenburg over the Russians in the 
Mazurian Lake region, there suddenly appeared at 
the mouth of the Dardanelles a powerful Anglo- 
French fleet. At its head was the super-dread- 
nought, Queen Elizabeth, the most powerful fight- 
ing ship afloat, with her giant guns, firing shells 
fifteen inches in diameter which weighed nearly a 
ton apiece. 

The Turkish forts at the entrance of the straits 
were well armed with new German guns, and partly 
manned by German gunners. Nevertheless, they 

* Enver was a great admirer of Napoleon, and imagined that he was 
destined to follow a similar career. 



THE YEAR 1915 129 

stood only a few days against the terrible hammering 
that came from the Allied fleet. By the end of 
February, they were silenced, and the fire of the 
Allies shifted upstream. Fort after fort fell under 
their well-aimed shells. But as the ships moved 
into the strait, the going became more and more 
dangerous. A swift current flows south west ward, 
and floating and submerged mines by the score were 
sent down from the Sea of Marmora by the Turks 
and the Germans. 

Panic seized the " Young Turks." As the boom 
of the big guns at the mouth of the straits reached 
their ears, growing louder and nearer all the while, 
they began to get ready to leave their capital and flee 
into Asia Minor. A German admiral stationed with 
the Turkish fleet had said that it would cost the 
Allies ten ships to force the straits, but that if they 
were ready to pay that price Constantinople un- 
doubtedly was theirs for the taking. 

Up the straits, slowly, but steadily, came the 
French and British. The fire from the forts was 
good ; several ships were hit, but not fatally. On 
the 1 8th of March came the turning point. The 
Turks were nearly out of ammunition. They made 
no large-sized shells themselves, and could only 
rely on shipments from Germany, which reached them 
with difficulty after a roundabout journey through 
Austria and Roumania. The Allies, now several 
miles up the strait, made an attack in force that 
day. The narrow channel was nearly filled with 



130 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

warships. Desperately the Turkish gunners worked 
to drive them back. Mines in great droves were 
loosed above, to be borne down the current upon 
the swiftly maneuvering vessels. 

Luck turned against the Allies. Three great battle- 
ships, two British and one French, went down with 
almost all on board. Two others were so badly 
damaged that they had to retreat. The deadly 
mines and the swift current began the work which 
the Turkish batteries finished. For as the ships, 
crippled by striking the mines, lay helpless before 
them, the German and Turkish gunners blazed 
forth with all their guns, and sent them to the 
bottom. 

The Allied fleet withdrew. The Turks waited, in 
suspense, wondering how they could stand another 
day of such pounding. In the strongest Turkish 
fort there remained, at the end of the day's fighting, 
only seven armor-piercing shells. They dreaded 
the return of the fleet on the morrow. But the 
morrow came, and the Allied fleet did not return 
to the attack. The staggering losses of the previous 
day had made the British admiral fear that, after 
all, the price was too great. Thus passed one of 
the first great chances to cut short the war. For, 
the straits once forced, and Constantinople in Allied 
hands, a flood of munitions could have been poured 
into Russia, while the pent-up streams of Russian 
wheat could have come forth to feed the French 
and British. Bulgaria and Roumania would 



THE YEAR 191 5 131 

have joined the Allied side, and the two Central 
Empires would have been forced to make peace 
before the year was out. 

But it was not to be. The British admiral waited 
five weeks before renewing the attack, and when the 
fleets returned, the Turks, with new guns shipped 
from Germany and a big supply of new shells, were 
ready for them. 

On the 2 2d of April the fleets once more returned 
to the attack. A furious bombardment was kept 
up for five days. Then, under cover of the great 
naval guns, troops from British and French trans- 
ports were landed at the tip end of the Gallipoli 
Peninsula. It was a costly venture, for the Turks, 
warned by the vigorous shelling of the previous 
days, had massed their troops and their guns to 
resist the invaders. Fifteen thousand men were 
wounded or killed among the British troops alone. 
The suffering of the survivors was intense. They 
had not food enough, nor ammunition enough, nor 
even water to drink. Within a few days, when the 
invaders had pushed their way a few miles up the 
narrow neck of land, they came to Turkish trenches 
so strong that they could not be taken without 
tremendous artillery fire — and the British had not 
the big guns — or tremendous loss of life. The 
battle had become another deadlock, with parallel 
trenches stretching across the rocky hills from strait 
to sea. Further north, on the western side of the 
peninsula, the Australians and New Zealanders had 



132 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

landed, charged into the teeth of a galling Turkish 
fire, and gained a foothold at Gaba Tepe. 

But it was plain that the Turks were not taken by 
surprise, and that the conquest of the rocky tongue 
of land was going to be a long, hard, and bloody 
task. The Turkish troops were well supplied with 
a.mmunition and were fed from Constantinople, which 
was close at hand. On the other hand the British, 
French, and Anzacs (so called from the initials of the 
Australian- New Zealand Army Corps) had to be 
supplied, under cover of night, with all their food, 
water, and munitions, which in turn were brought 
great distances over seas infested by German and 
Austrian submarines. 

The troops suffered terribly. The sun beat down 
pitilessly on the rocky soil, and there was no shelter 
from the heat. Water was not to be had, at times, 
and the invaders had to endure agonizing thirst. 

The Turk, when well led, is a sturdy, dogged 
fighter, and in this case he felt that the life of his 
nation hung in the balance. For four months inces- 
sant trench warfare went on, both sides suffering 
heavy losses,, but gaining no ground. One night in 
August the British made another surprise landing, 
this time at Suvla Bay, the westernmost point of the 
peninsula, and almost succeeded in reaching the 
Dardanelles. The Turks had not been looking for 
anything like this. Halfway across the tongue of 
land the British were met by the enemy. Another 
five miles and they would have had the Turkish 



THE YEAR 1915 133 

army at their mercy. The troops at the tip of the 
peninsula would have been cut off from retreat on 
the European side. 

But at the critical moment, when a few more 
reinforcements would have turned the tide, the Turks 
were able to halt the British advance. The golden 
opportunity passed, never to return. By October 
it was plain that the road would soon be open for 
guns and ammunition to pass rapidly from Berlin 
to Constantinople. Accordingly, the troops on the 
peninsula were withdrawn, skillfully, with very 
little loss of either men or supplies. An enterprise 
which gave great promise of success and which, if 
successful, would have brought the war to a rapid 
end, had failed — failed by a narrow margin. 

Had England and France broken through (by 
way of the Black Sea) with supplies of guns and 
ammunition to Russia and had they been able to 
bolster up the waning power of the Russian govern- 
ment, the history of the next few years might have 
been very different. 

It was April, and the Russians were threatening, 
for the third time, to pour through the passes of the 
Carpathian Mountains upon the fertile plains of 
Hungary. The large city of Cracow was almost with- 
in sight of the advancing Muscovites. Meanwhile, 
two things were happening. In the first place, the 
traitors in the Russian capital were doing their 
best to undermine the Grand Duke Nicholas and have 
him discharged from command of the armies ; they 



134 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



were also crippling the manufacture of guns and am- 
munition, as you have already been told. The Ger- 
mans, on the other hand, were massing an enormous 
number of guns and a great quantity of shells for a 

violent and unexpected attack 
on the center of the Russian 
line. 

In the closing days of April 
a hurricane of shells rained 
down upon the Russian 
trenches on the east bank of 
the little rivers Biala (bia'la) 
and Dunajec (ddbn a' yetz). 
In number of guns per mile 
and number of shells per min- 
ute the storm surpassed any- 
thing that had yet been expe- 
rienced in war. It grew in 
intensity until the first of 
May, when picked German troops, following a bar- 
rage* (bar-razh') of their own shells, which moved 
forward just ahead of them, advanced toward 
what had been the Russian trenches. They found 
these literally wiped out. Hardly a trace of them 
remained. 

With few guns and hardly enough ammuni- 
tion to last through the day, General Dimi- 
trieff, the Bulgarian, who commanded this part of 
the line, was compelled to order a retreat. But 

* Barrage ; a moving curtain of exploding shells. 







j 




: • ' -' : ' ; 


l r 



© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Dimitrieff 



THE YEAR 1915 135 

his men retired in good order. They went back 
slowly and sullenly, firing till their ammunition 
was gone, then resorting to bayonets and rifle 
butts in hand-to-hand fighting. 

The German plan had been to break clear through 
the army of Dimitrieff, then to divide, part turning 
north and part south, rolling up the Russian troops 
on each side, and capturing the greater part of the 
Grand Duke's forces. The dogged, stubborn courage 
of Dimitrieff and his men spoiled this scheme. 

Although their advanced positions had been blown 
to pieces by the tornado of big shells, and their 
ammunition was gone, they held on, hanging 
to every bit of ground as long as they could, and 
falling back only when it was plain that they would 
be cut to pieces or surrounded if they remained any 
longer. 

The Grand Duke meanwhile, after storming in 
vain at the War Office because his ammunition was 
withheld, had ordered a general retreat, all along the 
line, from the Carpathians to the borders of East 
Prussia. All through the month of May the great re- 
treat continued. In the first week of June the Aus- 
trians and Germans retook Przemysl. The Russians 
were not making the mistake of trying to hold fortresses 
or cities, for they realized that their armies must be 
kept together with as little loss of men as possible, 
no matter how many towns, fortified places, or even 
countries were surrendered to the enemy. Still 
the needed ammunition did not come, and still the 



136 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

soldiers of the Grand Duke fought with bayonets 
and clubbed muskets against the machine guns and 
high-explosive shells of the Germans. 

In the latter part of June, Lemberg was given up. 
The Germans and Austrians claimed to have taken 
300,000 Russian prisoners and to have killed or 
wounded as many more. 

July passed, and still the great retreat continued. 

The. group of pro- German traitors at the Russian 
court who had been trying to undermine the power 
of the Grand Duke Nicholas now, at last, were 
successful. They had kept ammunition away from 
his armies and thus forced the great retreat. Then 
they had demanded his removal as commander-in- 
chief on the ground that the Germans were driving 
him back. As a matter of fact, his handling of the 
retreat had shown wonderful generalship. Not once 
in the four months had the Germans been able to 
break through his stubborn resistance and to drive 
the Russians into a rout. 

Even now, when the Tzar finally asked him to 
resign his command, he did not dare to force him to 
retire to private life. There were too many of the 
officers and men who knew the truth — that it was 
not the Grand Duke's fault that the armies had 
had to retreat. So he was put in command of the 
armies in the Caucasus district, which were fight- 
ing the Turks on the south of the great mountain 
range. We shall hear of him again. 

In September came the first bit of good news 



THE YEAR 191 5 



137 



from the Russian front in five months. General 
Brusiloff (brusi'loff), attacking the Austrians near 




»••••••••• Furthest Russian advance, 1914 

mmtmtmm mm Battle Line about April 27th, 1915 
■a^ Battle Line in the fall of 1915 

The Great Russian Retreat 



Tarnopol, had captured 17,000 men and several guns. 
A small number compared with the half million Rus- 
sians lost as killed and prisoners during the great re- 
treat, but it showed that ammunition was at last ar- 



138 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

riving and that the spirit of the Russian generals 
and soldiers was far from broken. 

Soon afterwards, Hindenburg, massing all avail- 
able guns, and his best troops, made a strong 
attempt to march northward toward Petrograd. 
After bitter fighting, which lasted several days, he 
was unable to break through the Russian lines, which 
lay along the Dvina (dvin'a) River between Riga 
(ri'ga) and Dvinsk. For some weeks the Germans, 
intermittently, threw their men in massed formation 
first on Riga, then on Dvinsk. The Russians, reen- 
forced by new levies, and at last supplied with 
ammunition and guns, stood firm. The great retreat 
was at an end. 

It will be remembered that the cunning Bismarck 
had induced the Italian statesmen to sign a treaty 
pledging Italy to join Germany and Austria in case 
of an attack upon either of them by Russia and 
France combined. Bismarck had promised to 
make Austria release all her subjects of Italian 
race, but because the Italians had been beaten 
in their battles with the Austrians (in the war 
of 1866, fought between Prussia and Italy on 
one side, and Austria and the states of South 
Germany on the other) he refused to keep his word. 
There had been left under the rule of the Austrian 
Emperor nearly a million Italians, living in the 
cities of Trent, Trieste, Pola, and Fiume (fiu'ma), 
and the country near them. 

This territory was called Italia Irredenta (un- 



THE YEAR 1915 139 

redeemed Italy) and every Italian looked forward 
to the time when it should be freed from Austrian 
rule. 

One of the provisions of the Triple Alliance stated 
that if Austria secured additional territory in the 
Balkan states (Roumariia, Serbia, Bulgaria, Albania, 
Greece), Italy should also be given compensation 
in the shape of extra lands elsewhere. As it became 
more and more evident that the sympathies of the 
Italian people were strongly with France and Eng- 
land, the Italian statesmen grew bolder and more 
independent in their dealings with Austria. 

Finally the government at Rome notified the 
Austrians that as Austria had invaded Serbian 
territory and was holding it by force, Italy must ask 
"compensation" somewhere else. 

By this time Germany, thoroughly alarmed at 
the stand Italy was taking, decided that it was time 
to intervene in the quarrel. Accordingly she sent, 
as ambassador to Rome, Prince von Biilow, the 
former chancellor of the empire, whose wife was an 
Italian. The Prince, who was very well liked by 
the Italian leaders, lost no time in offering his services 
to secure a friendly settlement of the dispute. He 
admitted that Italy, under the treaty, was entitled to 
some land, and proposed that the city of Trent and 
the surrounding country (inhabited wholly by 
Italians) should be given over to Italy by Austria, 
the whole bargain to remain a secret until the end 
the war. 



140 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

This did not satisfy the Italians. They answered 
that Trieste must also be given to them. The 
Austrians, on the other hand, pointed out (this was 
in December, 19 14) that they were rapidly being 
driven out of Serbia, and that soon they would have 
no new land for which to compensate Italy. 

Meanwhile the Italians had swooped down on the 
Albanian city of Avlona, and were holding it with 
ships and men. 

Austria pointed out that Italy, too, had gained 
new ground in the Balkan countries by the capture 
of Avlona, and refused to admit that she owed Italy 
anything on account of her campaign against Serbia. 

About this time the former prime minister of Italy, 
Giolitti (jiolit'ti), revealed the fact that if it had not 
been for Italy's refusal to allow it, Austria would have 
attacked Serbia in the fall of 191 3, just after the close 
of the Second Balkan War. 

This added to the unpopularity of Austria among 
the Italian people, who were growing more and more 
friendly to France and Great Britain. 

Finally, in April, the Italian government, in spite 
of Von Billow's frantic efforts to modify its demands, 
notified Austria that Trentino (the region including 
the city of Trent, the upper valley of the Isonzo River 
and certain islands on the northeast coast of the 
Adriatic) must be given to Italy, that Trieste and the 
surrounding country must be made an independent 
state, that Italy did not trust Austria's promises 
to "do something after the war was over," hence 



THE YEAR 1915 141 

these demands must be complied with at once. In 
return, Italy agreed to pay thirty-eight million dollars 
in gold and to keep out of the war. 

These demands were flatly refused by the Austrian 
government, and the whole matter seemed deadlocked. 

In the first week of May, the Italian Prime Minister 
announced to the world that Italy was withdrawing 
from the Triple Alliance. 

This action so alarmed Austria and Germany, that 
Prince von Biilow was able to get the Viennese 
government to make a proposal to Italy that would 
have given her almost all she asked. The Italians, 
however, had now gone too far. They could not 
draw back. The people of the Peninsula, hating 
Austria always, would have risen up and over- 
thrown any government that now talked peace with 
the Dual Monarchy. 

Meanwhile, the statesmen at Rome were inducing 
France, Great Britain, and Russia to sign a treaty 
which should give to Italy not only all the Italian- 
speaking cities and districts in the Austrian empire, 
but a great deal of the coast of Dalmatia, besides, 
a district inhabited almost entirely by Serbs and 
Croats. This was the secret treaty of London, which 
was to cause trouble later. 

Finding herself well paid for doing what she wanted 
to do and for what she would gladly have done with- 
out pay, on the 23d of May, Italy solemnly declared 
war on Austria- Hungary (but not on Germany) 
and joined in an alliance with the Entente. 



142 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

By this time the Russians were in full retreat 
across the eastern front. Austria, hard pressed a 
few months before, now could devote her energies 
to preparing to meet the new foe. In fact, for a 
month before Italy's declaration of war, Austrian 
troops had been making lines of concrete-lined 
trenches along the course of the Isonzo River, 
stretching barbed wire, and placing little nests of 
machine guns at places where an army advancing 
from the west could most easily be checked. 

The country along the common boundary of the 
two nations is very mountainous, and hence almost 
impassable for an army when a strong enemy bars 
the way. The Italians struck northward toward 
Trent and eastward toward Gorizia and Trieste. 
After the first Italian successes which carried the 
fighting well into Austrian territory, both in the 
Trentino district and along the seacoast, the war 
settled down into the deadlock of parallel trenches 
which had become so familiar to the armies of the 
Allies in northern France. General Cadorna, the 
Italian commander-in-chief, flung his men across 
the lower Isonzo River, but reinforcements for -the 
Austrians arrived in great numbers and, for a time, 
the city of Gorizia stood firm. 

Meanwhile, the first serious efforts to break 
through the German line in the west were begun 
by the British and French. From the time in No- 
vember, 1 9 14, when the continuous line of trenches 
stretched from the Swiss border to the North Sea, 



THE YEAR 191 5 



143 



Joffre had given his foe no rest. Now, a well- 
planned attack would gain a little ground in the 
neighborhood of Rheims ; again there would be a 
surprise attack near Arras. In January, the French 
began a determined assault 
in Alsace that drove back 
the German lines and kept 
the enemy on the defensive 
in this region for many 
months. The summit of a 
peak known as Hartmann's- 
weilerkopf — which reached 
far out into the valley on the 
Rhine side of the Vosges 
Mountains, was taken and 
retaken many times. It 
finally remained, for good, 
in the hands of the French, 
but not until enough brave 
men had fallen there to equal the number of black- 
ened and shot-scarred stumps of what had once 
been a magnificent forest. 

"I nibble them," said Joffre, meaning that by 
taking a little bite here and a little bite there, he 
kept wearing down the enemy, giving them no rest, 
and keeping them constantly worried as to where the 
next attack might break out. 

Around the old fortress city of Verdun the French 
thrust back their foe in an ever widening circle. 
"We must give Verdun room to breathe," said Joffre. 




©Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Cadorna 



144 HTSTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Not long after the disastrous retreat from the 
Marne, the Germans had made a determined effort 
to break through the French lines between Toul and 
Verdun. This portion of the line was not held so 
strongly as it had been in the first days of September, 
1 9 14, when De Castelnau (cas' tel' no') had thrust 
back a German army which was under the personal 
direction of the Kaiser, although the French were 
outnumbered nearly two to one. At the time of this 
new German attack, the attention of the French was 
centered on the "race to the sea" and they were 
caught off their guard. They quickly rallied and 
brought up their reserves, but the result of the Ger- 
man thrust was an ugly dent in the French lines, reach- 
ing the river Meuse (muz) at St. Mihiel (san mi el') 
and actually giving the enemy a bridgehead, as it is 
called, on the west bank of the stream. 

Both sides of this angle, or salient, as military men 
call it, were soon the object of Joffre's "nibbling." 
Important ground was gained both at Pont-a-Mous- 
son (mbb / son(g)) and Les Eparges (laz aparzh'). 

The enemy, on his side, taking advantage of a flood 
in the river Aisne, attacked the French lines near 
Soissons in January, gained some ground, and 
captured some prisoners. 

The most ambitious attempt to break through the 
German lines was planned by Joflre in March, when 
he and Sir John French massed some tremendously 
heavy guns to the west of the village of Neuve 
Chapelle (nuv shape!'). 



THE YEAR 191 5 145 

The main attack was to be made by the British 
army, although the French were to make a smaller 
drive further north. It was hoped that the Allies 
might break clear through the German lines and 
recapture the important city of Lille. 

At seven thirty o'clock on the morning of March 
10, the British guns opened fire. Nothing like the 
bombardment that followed had ever been seen in 
war up to this time. The German trenches were 
turned into small volcanoes, as the big shells burst, 
wiping out the entire force of men who had taken 
refuge in them. Then the guns all together lifted 
their fire to the village in the rear of the trenches, 
and the British soldiers, with their comrades, the 
Gurkhas from India, went "over the top" of their 
own trenches and advanced rapidly, following the 
advancing hail of shells from their own guns in the 
rear. The barbed-wire entanglements had been cut 
to shreds, and in the front line trenches of the foe 
they found hardly a living soul. 

On they rushed, still preceded by the rain of shells, 
until a mile and a half forward, after taking the 
village of Neuve Chapelle itself at the point of the 
bayonet, they were held up by some new barbed- 
wire lines. 

Here some one had blundered. No one knows just 
which British general should bear the blame, but 
the fact remains that the guns that were to have 
moved forward to cut this new wire obstacle never 
came, and when the officers tried to telephone back 



146 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

to headquarters and ask for reinforcements of men 
and guns they found that their wires were cut and 
that they could not get word to their generals. Held 
up by the barbed wire, and by the rapidly arriving Ger- 
man reserves, they were a mark for the enemy's guns. 
Ten thousand men, over a fifth of the attacking force, 
were killed or wounded in the course of battle, and 
the great majority of them were lost at this point. 
Finally, late in the afternoon, another rush forward 
was made, but the Germans were gathering in force, 
and the Britons had to "dig themselves in." Two 
days later the Crown Prince of Bavaria sent his men 
in great waves to win back the lost ground. But 
the British were ready, and fifteen thousand Germans 
were lost in three bloody, fruitless charges. 

Neuve Chapelle showed the world that Britain's 
new army had the fighting men, who, when properly 
led, were more than a match for the Germans. Had 
the generals done their work as well as the privates 
did theirs, the path to Lille might have been 
cleared. 

About the first of April the Germans gave 
out the statement that the French were using 
poisonous gases to kill men in the German trenches. 
This was a lie, made up out of whole cloth, and the 
French government denounced it. The world 
wondered why the Germans should have taken 
the trouble to make up this falsehood, but on April 
22 the answer came. 

Along the Allied lines just north of the Belgian 



THE YEAR 191 5 147 

city of Ypres stood a division of Canadians. Next 
them was a force of black men from the Senegal 
colony of France, as brave fighters as any in the 
French army. Suddenly, out of the German 
trenches, a few hundred yards away, there rose 
a cloud of greenish fumes, which, carried along by 
the strong northeast wind, moved swiftly toward 
the Canadians and Senegalese. One moment these 
men stood, alert and wondering, every faculty 
awake ; the next they were rolling on the ground, 
coughing, choking, gasping for breath, clawing at 
their throats, reeling, falling unconscious, and dying. 

The black men were fearless fighters. The Ger- 
mans had learned to respect their rifles and their terri- 
ble knives. But this was something beyond their 
knowledge, — they saw no way to fight it. Leaving 
the flank of the Canadians open, they turned and fled 

The white men knew what it was, the terrible 
chlorine gas. But they had been put there to hold 
the lines, and hold them they must, somehow. 
They buried their faces in their coats, in their 
handkerchiefs, in the mud of the trenches. They 
died by the hundreds, a horrible death, — but they 
held the lines for a time. The retreat of the Sene- 
galese had left open their flank and they finally had 
to retreat, but not until sufficient reserves had 
arrived to prevent a clear break through. 

Germany had torn up another " scrap of paper." 
For at a conference held at the Hague all civilized 
nations had signed an agreement not to use poison 



148 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

or poisonous gas as a weapon in war. In the end it 
furnished only another proof of the stupidity of the 
unscrupulous cunning of the German war lords. 
For the Allies began at once to make gas masks to 
protect their men, and soon turned out gases which 
did far more damage to the Germans than the latter 
inflicted with their chlorine. During the greater 
part of the year the winds in northern France blow 
from the west, so that the Germans often had their 
own weapon turned upon them with telling effect. 
They had greatly increased the cost of the war (for 
millions of masks had to be made at once), had 
increased the hatred that their enemies and many 
neutral nations had for them, and in the end suffered 
far more from the gases of the Allies than did the 
Allies from theirs. 

The Germans soon began throwing gases in shells 
— in fact in this same attack of April 22 there were 
some shells sent over that were full of a substance 
that irritated the eyes and injured the sight for the 
time being. But again the Allies beat them at their 
own game, and proved that the boasted German 
chemists were not a match for theirs. 

This attack on Ypres was the only German 
offensive on the west during 191 5, but the French 
tried several. General Foch tried hard to break 
through Loos (los) and Lens (lans) and to capture 
Vimy (vi'my) Ridge, but he lost heavily in the 
attempt. The French, however, drove the Germans 
out of many strong positions just north of Arras, 



THE YEAR 191 5 149 

among them a wonderfully fortified spot called ' ' the 
Labyrinth." 

In the early autumn, on September 25, General 
Joffre made a determined effort to break through the 
German lines in the county of Champagne, halfway 
between Rheims and Verdun. Attacking with 
wonderful gallantry, the French swept over the first 
system of German trenches, and drove their foes 
back more than two miles along a great part of the 
front. The Germans, however, had been busy pre- 
paring second and third lines of defense in the rear of 
their first line trenches. They had forced the inhabi- 
tants of the occupied French territory, at the point of 
the bayonet, to dig these trenches for them. In like 
manner they had used their prisoners of war for the 
same kind of work, although the rules of warfare, as 
drawn up at the convention of the Hague and signed 
by Germany as well as by the other civilized nations, 
flatly forbade this use of men who had been captured. 
The Hague agreement became just one more " scrap 
of paper " for Germany, — to be torn up whenever her 
interest demanded it. (This proved a great and un- 
fair advantage to the Germans throughout the war, 
for the Allies refused to break their signed pledges 
regarding the use of prisoners.) 

This strong secondary defense line, two miles back 
of the front line trenches, proved a harder barrier to 
break. The French guns had not been brought up to* 
support the infantry and the Germans had rushed 
their reserve troops to meet the threatened attack. 



ISO HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

As a result, seeing that it was costing him the lives 
of too many of his men, Joffre had to give up the 
attempt. 

On September 25, attacks were also made just 
southeast of Ypres ; and further south the British 
captured Loos and the French took Souchez (soosha/)- 
The object of these drives was to prevent the Germans 
from sending help from this part of the line to the 
Champagne district, where the French were making 
their main attack. 

All told, over 20,000 Germans were captured, 
besides the wounded who had been left behind, and 
nearly thirty miles of front line trenches had been 
stormed. 

This gain was nothing, however, compared with 
the great retreat of the Russians. They had moved 
back in some places nearly three hundred miles, 
while, in the main, the trenches in the west stood as 
they had been. 

The German lines were still too strong to be 
pierced. Germany and Austria were able to hold 
back the French and English in the west and to drive 
the Russians before them in the east. 

These successes of the Central Powers had their 
effect upon the nations, especially in the south- 
eastern part of Europe, which thus far had been 
neutral. Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria had never 
recovered from the effects of the peace of Bukarest 
in August, 191 3, when he had been compelled to 
give up part of his northern territory to Roumania, 



THE YEAR 191 5 151 

and to allow Greece and Serbia to divide Mace- 
donia, a territory which all Bulgarians had been 
taught to believe was inhabited entirely by their 
countrymen. 

As a matter of fact, Macedonia was a mixture. 
While the Bulgarian-speaking people were the most 
numerous group, by far, they did not comprise much 
more than a majority of the population because there 
were so many Gypsies, Turks, Albanians, Greeks, 
Spanish Jews, and Kutzo-Wallachs (a people of 
Roumanian blood). 

But Ferdinand wished for revenge on the Serbs ; he 
wanted Macedonia, he wanted the ports of Kavala 
and Salonica, he wanted the Turkish city of Adrian- 
ople, he wanted the Dobrudja, Roumania's province 
bordering on the Black Sea. 

As the World War grew hotter, he made advances 
to each side, asking what he would be given in 
return for the services of his army. France and 
Great Britain were willing to promise him Turkish 
territory, and even induced Serbia to agree to give up 
part of Macedonia, but with Greece they could not 
make any headway. They asked Greece to agree 
to give Kavala to Bulgaria, promising to pay her 
back with districts in Asiatic Turkey that are in- 
habited by Greeks. In like fashion Serbia was to 
be rewarded for giving up part of Macedonia by 
receiving Bosnia and Herzegovina after Austria 
had been thoroughly defeated. 

The Greek Queen was the sister of the German 



i$2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Kaiser, and she and her husband were doing every- 
thing possible to keep their country from joining the 
Allies. On the other hand, the prime minister, the 
wonderful Cretan, Venizelos (ven i zel'os) , wished 
to see his countrymen join in the war against the 
Turks, and thus free from Turkish rule millions of 
Greeks who were still subjects of the miserable 
government at Constantinople. 

Venizelos was willing to surrender Kavala to 
Bulgaria, but the King, the peace party, and the 
narrow-minded patriots who could not see very far 
ahead defeated the scheme. 

Meanwhile, although Ferdinand had made a secret 
agreement with Berlin and Vienna as far back as April, 
1 9 14, he was ready to sell out to the highest bidder. 

As he was hesitating, the French foreign minister, 
the shrewd Delcasse (del cas sa') , urged that the 
Serbian army line up on the Bulgarian border and 
force Ferdinand, at the point of the pistol, to join the 
Allies. He also urged that a strong Anglo-French 
force be landed at Salonica by agreement with 
Greece, and be marched up to the Serb-Bulgar 
boundary, in order to help overawe the wavering 
Ferdinand. This policy seemed too rough and high- 
handed to the British and the majority of the French, 
so Delcasse resigned, and the plan of trying to win 
over Bulgaria by peaceful means was continued. 

The war of 191 3 had left Bulgaria one new seaport, 
on the^Egean, the town of Dedeagatch (deda a gatch). 
But the only railroad from Sofia to this seaport passed 



THE YEAR 1915 153 

through Turkish territory. In order to induce 
Bulgaria to join the Turks and Germans, the Kaiser 
persuaded Turkey to give up to Bulgaria a strip of 
land, comprising all of European Turkey west of the 
little river Maritza, and including part of the town 
of Adrianople. The railroad to Dedeagatch now* 
ran wholly on Bulgarian soil. 

In addition to this Bulgaria was promised all of 
Serbian Macedonia, and eventually, the Rouma- 
nian province of Dobrudja, although this was kept 
secret at the time, as the Central Powers still hoped 
that Roumania might enter the war on their side. 

On October 6, Bulgaria, having pretended up 
to the last that she was still considering the offer of 
France, Great Britain, and Russia, cast off the mask 
and declared war on Serbia. 

As the Bulgars struck westward, an army of 
nearly half a million Germans and Austrians struck 
southward across the Danube, and fell like a thun- 
derbolt on the brave little army of Serbia. Twice 
before Serbia had been invaded, and twice her fierce 
warriors had rallied and driven the Austrians back 
across the Danube. This time, however, with not 
enough ammunition, with no heavy guns, and out- 
numbered by the Bulgars alone, to say nothing of the 
Austro-German force, the gallant little nation looked 
death in the face. 

She appealed to Greece, with whom she had a 
treaty for mutual protection against the Bulgars, 
but the pro-German Queen and King were able to 



154 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

bring about the rejection of the request for troops. 
The Allies appealed to Venizelos, to stand by Greece's 
promise to help Serbia. As prime minister, he gave 
permission to the French and British to land troops 
at Salonica and march them north to join the Serbs. 
The Allies, when it was too late, realized that Delcasse, 
after all, was right in his idea of the way to treat the 
Bulgars. They rushed troops to Salonica, as many 
as could be spared from the western front. But in 
the meantime, the gallant little Serbian army, which 
had never numbered over a quarter of a million and 
included every able-bodied man in the country, was 
slowly driven back, back into the hills. The half 
million Germans and Austrians in the north, the 
three hundred and fifty thousand Bulgars on the 
east advanced, laying waste the country and killing 
off the Serbs. The tiny army of Montenegro had 
thrown their lot in with their Serbian kinsmen. 
Ammunition gone, the Serbs and Montenegrins 
fought with bayonets, with clubbed muskets, with 
rocks. History has no record of a braver, more 
hopeless fight. Leaving their families to the tender 
mercies of the Hungarian and Bulgar invaders, they 
retreated, sullenly, stubbornly, over the mountains 
to the west. 

Up the valley of the Vardar came the French and 
English, straining every nerve to reach their brave 
allies. The effort proved to be in vain, for before 
a junction could be made with the Serbs, strong forces 
of Bulgarians had cut in, south of Uskub, and the 



THE YEAR 191 5 



155 




■■■■ ■■■■ Bulgarian army attacking from the east 

ESS BS Au8tro-Hungarian-German army attacking from the north 

1 1 1 1 Serbian army, finally forced to retreat along lines 

minium IIIIIIIIIIH Franco-British force, arrived at Saloniki, too late to join the Serbs at Uskub 
••■^•■™« International boundaries 
__^___ Chief railways 

j Territory (including part of the city of Adrianople) given up to Bulgaria by Turkey, 
'-ct< to induce the Bulgarians to enter the war on the side of the Germans and Turks 

Allies, outnumbered, were compelled to retreat. 
It was feared that the whole Serbian army would 



156 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

be surrounded and captured, but the gallant little 
fighters made their way across the Albanian moun- 
tains to the coast, where Allied warships and trans- 
ports received them and carried them to safety on 
the island of Corfu. 

Meanwhile, Greece was in the throes of a struggle 
between the party which favored entering the war 
on the side of the Allies, and the friends of Germany, 
who wished to keep the country out of the war. 

When Bulgaria first stabbed Serbia in the back, 
the Serbs called on the Greeks to come to their 
aid, as they had sworn to do. Prime Minister 
Venizelos with a majority of the Greek Congress 
and most of the Greek people were ready to go to 
war. But the Kaiser's sister and her husband would 
not have it so. 

Defying the Greek constitution, King Constantine 
refused to let Venizelos be prime minister, 
though the people held an election and sent to 
Congress a large majority for Venizelos and war. 
General Sarrail and the French and British troops, 
who had failed to reach the Serbs, were being driven 
back out of Serbia into Greece by stronger forces 
of Bulgars and Germans. The king sent word that 
if they retreated upon Greek soil he would send out 
his army to make them prisoners. France and 
England retorted that if he did so their warships 
would blockade his whole coast and starve Greece 
out in a month. They pointed out that General 
Sarrail and his men had gone to Greece at the 



THE YEAR 1915 157 

invitation of the Greek prime minister to do what 
Greece herself should be doing — to help Serbia 
against the Bulgars. 

Constantine thought better of it, and the Allied 
force stayed in the hills just north of Salonica — 
in fact, right along the Serbian boundary line, 
but he left nothing undone in the way of aiding 
Germany except actually fighting the Allies. 

Meanwhile, the British force at the Dardanelles 
had been withdrawn. Some were sent to Salonica, 
some to Egypt, to help guard the Suez Canal, some to 
the Persian Gulf, from which a slow advance had been 
begun up the Tigris River toward Bagdad. 

In Egypt, too, the British were beginning to make 
trouble for the Turks. At first they had been 
content to keep the Turkish forces from cutting the 
canal, but as their troops grew in number, they 
began, in a cautious way, to extend their lines 
across the desert to the east. 

One by one other nations had been drawn into 
the great war. In 191 5, Italy had joined the 
Entente ; Bulgaria, the Central Powers. The 
neutral nations were having a hard time to keep 
out of it. German submarines were sinking ships 
of all nations found carrying provisions or muni- 
tions to England or France. At first the submarine 
commanders stopped these vessels and gave the 
crew time to take to the boats, but every now and 
then some unusually brutal captain would let fly 
his torpedo at a ship and sink it with all on board. 



158 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

In the past, it had often happened that warships 
had sunk merchant vessels of the enemy, but only 
after all passengers and the crew had been transferred 
to the war vessel. The submarines, however, refused 
to take on board the crews of their victims, and 
started a new reign of terror on the seas by forcing 
the occupants of sinking vessels to take to the open 
boats, in some cases many miles away from land. 
This was bad enough ; but when it came to drowning 
innocent men, women, and children in peaceful mer- 
chant vessels, neutral nations felt that the limit of 
inhumanity had been reached and that it was time to 
call a halt to such actions. 

The most brutal case on record was the torpedoing 
of the great ocean liner Lusitania, sunk off the Irish 
coast in May, with the loss of nearly a thousand 
people, over a hundred of whom were Americans. 
Children and women in great numbers were on board. 
While the civilized world stood aghast at this new 
proof of the callousness of the German war lords, the 
German people showed themselves worthy followers of 
their rulers by closing all the schools, striking medals 
to celebrate the event, and giving themselves to 
riotous joy. 

American citizens, considering themselves safe by 
all the laws of nations and all the rules of humanity, 
had lost their lives. A sharp note was sent to 
Germany by President Wilson, so sharp that his 
peace-loving Secretary of State, Mr. Bryan, resigned 
rather than sign it. Germany finally apologized 



THE YEAR 191 5 159 

and promised that such an offense should not occur 
again. Yet before the end of the year three or four 
other ships were torpedoed without warning and the 
great liner Ancona was sent down in the Mediterra- 
nean by an Austrian submarine. There followed 
another sharp warning from the United States, 
and another promise of good behavior, on the 
part of Germany, and the trouble slumbered for a 
while. 

Other matters were happening to show the world 
how ruthless the military spirit had made the whole 
German nation. Belgium, whose only crime had been 
that she refused to break her plighted word, was in a 
worse state than any other country except Serbia or 
Poland. Germans held nineteenth -twentieths of her 
soil, and commanded every foot of the other twentieth 
with their heavy guns. Her people were forced to 
work for Germany without pay, her towns were fined 
and forced to contribute millions of money to the 
German war chest, — but worst of all, her citizens 
were starving. In times of peace the little nation 
had imported about half its food, and now food 
simply could not be obtained. 

But help was at hand. A committee of Americans 
organized the Association for Belgian Relief, and put 
in charge of the distribution of food an American 
engineer, Mr. Herbert Hoover. Our minister to 
Belgium, Mr. Brand Whitlock, toiled early and late, 
trying to soften the rigors of German rule. Mean- 
while, Mr. Hoover brought in food, and protected 



160 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

it from being stolen or confiscated by the Germans. 
The whole Belgian nation knows who it was that 
kept them from starvation during the trying four 
years, and they will be eternally grateful to the 
great Republic of the West and her noble sons, 
Whitlock and Hoover. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why did so few people believe that the war would last a long 
time? 

2. Why had so many men been left behind in Przemysl? 

3. Why did the Russian advance through the Carpathians seem 
so threatening to the Austrians and Hungarians? 

4. What was the great weakness of Russia in 191 5? 

5. Why were France and Great Britain so anxious to force the 
Dardanelles ? 

6. How did fortune turn against the Allies? 

7. What would have happened if the fleets had returned to the 
attack on the 19th of March? 

8. What were the great difficulties of the Allies at Gallipoli ? 

9. What prevented a victory at Suvla Bay? 

10. What was the plan of the German attack at the Dunajec River ? 

11. What became of the Grand Duke Nicholas after the great 
retreat ? 

12. For what reasons was Italy not satisfied to be allied with 
Austria ? 

13. What promises were made to Italy by Russia, France, and 
Great Britain? 

14. What prevented Neuve Chapelle from being a great victory? 

15. Why was Germany foolish to use poison gas? 

16. What led Tzar Ferdinand to join the Germans? 

17. Why did not Greece stand by her treaty with Serbia? 

18. What happened to the Serbian army? 

19. Why was Germany's submarine campaign unlawful? 

20. How did the Americans save Belgium? 



CHAPTER VII 
Ups and Downs 

The lines in 1916. — The Grand Duke at Erzerum. — Falkenhayn 
and Petain. — They did not pass ! — Disaster at Kut. — The 
drive at Italy. — Brusiloff the wary. — The recoil in Italy. — 
Britannia still rules the waves. — Kitchener's work is done. 
— At last the "big push." — Roumania takes a hand. — Sturmer 
and the Zemptsvos. — The defeat of Roumania. — A German 
peace. — Nivelle and Mangin at Verdun. — The Serbs once 
more at the front. — Dissensions in Bulgaria. — The staying 
power of France. 

New year's day, 1916, found the lines on the 
western front practically where they had stood a year 
before. The Allies had made some small gains, but 
at the rate at which they had moved forward during 
the twelve months, it would take a hundred years to 
drive the Germans out of France and Belgium. In 
the east, the great Russian retreat had moved the 
lines back as much as three hundred miles in some 
places. Still, the land that had been surrendered was 
the country of the Poles, the Lithuanians, and the 
Letts. True Russia had, as yet, no German invaders, 
while the eastern end of Austrian Galicia was still 
within the Russian lines. 

In the valleys of the Isonzo and the Adige, the 
lines of the Italians and the Austrians were dead- 
locked. North of Salonica, General Sarrail and his 

161 



1 62 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Franco-British force held the Greek frontier against 
the Bulgars. 

In the valley of the Tigris, the British expedition 
was in trouble. A large army of Turks, released by 
the withdrawal of the British from the Gallipoli 
Peninsula, had suddenly descended the Tigris River 
and beaten back General Townshend's forces, which 
had been approaching Bagdad, and compelled them 
to take refuge in Kut-el-Amara. There, protected 
by the river on three sides, they were now surrounded 
by superior forces of the enemy. A new expedition, 
to rescue Townshend, was being organized at the 
mouth of the river. 

The Russian government had fallen into evil 
hands. A crowd of aristocrats, who hated all 
progress toward liberty, was in control. They 
secretly sympathized with Junker-led Germany, 
for they belonged to the Junker class themselves. 
They hated and feared the Grand Duke Nicholas, 
the friend of progress and the idol of the army; 
and they had tried to " shelve" him by putting him 
in command of the armies operating against the 
Turks in the Caucasus region. 

But Nicholas Nicholaivitch (son of Nicholas) was 
not the man to be shelved. Instead of sulking over 
his undeserved dismissal, he set to work with energy 
and skill to plan a winter campaign against the 
Turks. 

The difficulties were tremendous. The country 
which had to be crossed was very mountainous, very 



UPS AND DOWNS 



163 




1 64 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

high above the sea, several feet deep in snow at 
this time of the year, and traversed by few roads. 
Right in the path of the invaders stood the mighty 
city fortress of Erzerum. Ringed around by its 
eighteen forts and rising high above the surrounding 
country on a snow-clad mountain, it lay grim and 
menacing. 

Slowly but powerfully the Grand Duke closed in 
on the doomed city. A Turkish force sent to its 
relief was met and driven off. From three sides the 
Russians approached. At last with a silent rush of 
men armed with cold steel, one of its forts was 
taken, then another, then another, until on the 15th of 
February, nine of them had fallen. The Russian guns 
were dragged through the deep snow to the captured 
forts, and next day the city surrendered. 

For the next three months, the Grand Duke won 
an unbroken series of victories. But these vic- 
tories were alarming the pro-German crowd of 
traitors at the court of the Tzar. A new prime 
minister, Sturmer, of German blood and German 
sympathies, was now in control. It became harder 
and harder for Nicholas to get the supplies and 
ammunition that he needed. His advance slowed 
down little by little, and at last he was forced to halt. 

A new commander-in-chief of the German army 
had been appointed. He was General von Falken- 
hayn, and his pet scheme was the crushing of France 
before the new armies of Great Britain were ready. 

At the northeastern corner of the eastern half of 



UPS AND DOWNS 



165 



the long line of trenches that reached from Switzer- 
land to the North Sea stood the old French fortress 
city of Verdun. 

Around it curved the opposing trenches, in a rough 
semicircle twenty-five miles 
in diameter . This had been 
the pivot on which the 
German attacks had hinged 
in the first week of Sep- 
tember, 1914. On its east- 
ern side De Castelnau had 
flung back the Kaiser's 
chosen men, while to the 
west had been fought the 
so-called First Battle of the 
Marne. 

Verdun, itself, stood like 
a headland jutting out into a sea of enemies. At one 
time it seemed as if it must be surrounded, for the 
hostile lines lacked only twenty miles of meeting 
in its rear. 

Against this fort, the most prominent in the whole 
French line, Von Falkenhayn had chosen to strike 
his blow. 

On the 20th of February, there was calm along 
the front on Verdun. Fierce fighting had been 
going on in the county of Champagne, twenty- 
five miles to the west. In fact, the Germans 
had made a feint there, in order to divert the 
attention of the French from their main attack. 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General von Falkenhayn 



1 66 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



On the 2 ist, there burst forth the most tremendous 
hurricane of fire that the world had seen up to this 
time. The French trenches just north of Verdun 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

The Gun That Saved France (Poilus Firing a Seventy-Five) 

were simply wiped out by a furious storm of huge 
German shells. 

Shells full of high explosive, which tore holes 
fifteen feet deep and thirty feet across, shells full 
of poison gases, shells filled with shrapnel, burst in 
a torrent on the doomed lines. 

After several hours of this terrible bombardment 
from a formidable array of big guns that had been 
secretly massed for the purpose, it suddenly ceased, 
and a few Germans came walking out to inspect the 



UPS AND DOWNS 167 

damage that had been done. To their astonishment, 
they were greeted with well-aimed rifle fire, and 
went hurrying back to report that there must be 
a few Frenchmen left alive in the trenches, after all. 

Von Falkenhayn had been sure that after such a 
terrible fire no living thing could survive in the 
trenches. But the Frenchmen had "dug in," like 
rabbits, and from the ends of their underground bur- 
rows, they were waiting, grimly, with rifle and ma- 
chine gun. 

Then another storm burst, burst in great waves 6i 
gray-green troops. Four hundred thousand men were 
massed on seventy miles of front, and out of these 
armies certain picked divisions now advanced to 
the attack. 

The Frenchmen remaining in what had been the 
front line trenches shot them down by scores 
and hundreds. But they came on faster than they 
could be killed. By sheer weight of numbers they 
swept on. The surviving French defenders of the 
first line trenches were killed or captured, and the 
Germans advanced toward the lines of support. 
Here the famous 75*s came into play. These guns, 
whose recoil mechanism is the one French military 
secret which the Germans have been unable to dis- 
cover, can be fired four times as rapidly as the 
German 77's. They shot with deadly accuracy 
and with surprising speed. Their shells, 75 mil- 
limeters (about 3 inches) in diameter, burst among 
the advancing Germans with deadly effect. Still 



1 68 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



they came on ! They captured the front line trenches 
and drove southward nearly two miles before they 
had to stop. 

The next day, after another fearful storm of 
artillery, the Germans advanced again. Again the 
French retired, slowly, in good order, punishing 
their foes terribly. As one French- 
man said, at Verdun land was sold 
in very small pieces, and the price 
paid was high. 

Meanwhile, a new commander 
of the French fortress was ap- 
W V v \| pointed, General Henri Petain 

(pa tan (g)') , whose spirit put new 
life into the defense. " lis ne 
passer out pas!" he declared, 

General Petain " Courage, mes braves, 071 les 

aura!" ,(" Tne v shall not pass! Have courage, my 
brave fellows, we'll get them !") 

On the fourth day of the savage attack, the French 
reserves began to arrive. The single railroad that 
connected Verdun with the rest of France was 
wholly unable to bring forward the great numbers 
of men that were required, and to transport the 
enormous quantities of ammunition of all kinds 
and food that the men at the front needed so sorely. 

An army of trucks was brought up, trucks whose 
drivers toiled night and day, trucks that traveled 
roads swept by the foe's big guns and raided by his 
bombing airplanes. 




UPS AND DOWNS 



169 



As the struggle increased in intensity, it finally 
came to be known that it was the German Crown 
Prince who was in command of the attacking armies 
and that he was to have the glory, when Verdun 
fell. With savage stubbornness Von Falkenhayn 
flung his men in swarms at 
the outer circle of the forts 
of Verdun. Day after 
day the attack continued, 
varying from point to 
point, as the Germans 
tried first one place, then 
another, in the slowly nar- 
rowing circle. 

France was determined 
that they should not 
break through. Her men 
died in their tracks, 
muttering with their last 
breath, "lis ne passer out 
pas! ' ' but break or surren- 
der they would not. Like a cold blue rock jutting 
out into a stormy sea, Petain's small army stood. 
When the commander decided that a spot had be- 
come impossible to hold, he drew back his men and 
"sold" it to the enemy, at the highest price that he 
could get. 

The Germans had boasted to their allies and the 
neutral world that they would soon capture Verdun, 
and that the fall of the city would be a sign of the 




The German Crown Prince 



170 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

collapse of the French army. The French had said 
nothing, but with set teeth, they silently vowed that 
their army should die to the last man before a German 
should set foot in the now immortal city. February 
wore into March and March into April. Still Von 
Falkenhayn and the Crown Prince would not give 
4 up. And the valor of their men was second only 
to that of the defenders. They were fighters to the 
core, no doubt about it. 

No one will ever know what the assault on 
Verdun cost the Germans. They had proclaimed to 
the world that this was the blow that would 
end the war, and they were caught in the 
trap of their own boasting. 

During the first month, they pushed their lines 
forward in some places as much as three or four miles. 
During the second month their greatest gain was 
not quite a mile deep, and every now and then the 
French, by a dashing, skillful counter-attack, would 
win back in a day ground that had cost the Germans 
a week of steady assaults. 

As spring advanced, the new British army was 
ready, and Sir Douglas Haig, who had followed his 
former chief, Lord French, as its commander, 
begged to be allowed to take part in the glorious 
defense of Verdun. But Joffre knew the pride of his 
countrymen, and would let none but French troops 
hold the fort. 

Germany still stormed on, far into the month of 
June, hoping against hope that her boast might be 



UPS AND DOWNS 171 

made good. Then on the first of July — but that, 
as Kipling says, is another story, and you shall hear 
it later. Verdun stood safe — they did not pass ! 

We have left General Townshend and his nine 
thousand men cooped up by the Turks in Kut-el- 
Amara. Underestimating the strength of his op- 
ponents and forgetting that the Serbian campaign 
had opened up the Berlin to Bagdad railway, by 
which German reinforcements and German ammu- 
nition could reach the Turks, he had been caught 
and surrounded by superior forces of the enemy. 
Up the river to his relief came the expedition of 
General Lake. 

After being delayed for a month by the floods of 
the Tigris, the British made a determined effort to 
break through in the early part of April. They 
were so near to succeeding that Townshend' s sur- 
rounded force could hear their guns booming down 
the river. 

It proved to be all in vain, however. On the 
28th of April, with General Lake's column still ten 
or fifteen miles away and held to a standstill by a 
superior Turkish force, Townshend' s men gave up, 
without conditions. Nearly nine thousand troops 
were surrendered, with quantities of military stores 
and almost five million dollars in money. 

A great blow had been dealt to British pride, and 
to Great Britain's standing in the East. There 
was a great shake-up among the officials in India, 
who had planned the campaign with so little knowl- 



172 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

edge of the enemy's strength. General Lake was 
removed, and in his place was appointed General 
Sir Frederick Stanley Maude, under whose careful 
direction the expedition against Bagdad was organized 
anew. 

Let us return for a moment to a scene of the war 
that we have neglected for some time — the eastern 
Alps and the valley of the Isonzo, where Austrians 
and Italians stood, locked in a fierce struggle. 

The Austrians, like their allies, had decided that 
Russia was practically out of the fight. As Germany 
made a supreme effort to smash France, so now in 
like manner the Dual Monarchy attempted to put 
Italy out of the war. 

Transferring about 360,000 men from the Russian 
front, and secretly massing great quantities of heavy 
cannon, the Austrians, on May 16, launched a 
strong attack against the Italian positions in the 
southern Tyrol district, following it up, soon after- 
ward, by a similar storm on the Isonzo front. Bul- 
garian troops were brought to aid in the attack, and 
every available man was launched at the trenches 
which the Italians had taken after such long and 
arduous labor. Overwhelmed by numbers and out- 
gunned, the Italians had to retreat. In the first 
week's fighting over 30,000 men were taken prisoners, 
and more than two hundred and fifty cannon were 
captured. 

But after ten days of almost steady disaster, the 
Italians stood firm, and refused to retreat any farther. 



UPS AND DOWNS 173 

For the next ten days they stood on the defensive, 
here and there retaking a mountain peak or driving 
the invaders out of Italian territory. 

Then something happened. The great Russian 
bear, which had been left alone by Germans and 
Austrians for the past eight months, as a creature 
nearly dead, suddenly came to life and put up a 
fight which for suddenness and unexpected vigor 
can hardly be equaled in the whole story of the war. 

It was General BrusilofI who planned it, the same 
BrusilofT who had put heart into the Russians by 
his victory at Tarnopol in September, 191 5, the first 
success after four months of discouraging disasters. 
He laid his plans quietly and stealthily. He knew 
that Austria had withdrawn many of the troops 
from her eastern front in order to give Italy her 
death wound. He knew, too, that the swarming 
spies and traitors at court would betray his scheme 
to the enemy if given half a chance. "There is 
a secret wire from the Tzar's palace to Berlin," 
said he, and he kept his own counsel. On the whole 
southern half of the front, from the Pripet (prip'et) 
marshes to the Roumanian border, he massed his 
men for an attack. 

Opening with the usual hurricane of fire from the 
big guns, he tore the Austrian trenches to pieces 
with his shells. Then he ordered the artillery to 
cease, and gave every indication of attacking with 
his infantry. The Austrians, expecting a charge, 
rushed their reserves, their guns, even their cavalry, 



174 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



in some places, up to the shell-torn front. But the 
wily BrusilofI was watching them. As soon as his 
airmen reported that the front trenches of the 
enemy were again filled with men, he suddenly let 
loose another blast of death from his big guns. 

The Austrians, massed to 
repel an infantry charge, 
were literally cut to pieces. 
When the guns ceased 
the second time and Brusi- 
loffs soldiers advanced, 
they found only broken 
and scattered remnants of 
what had been Austria's 
first line troops. 

With wonderful dash 
BrusilofI swept on, recap- 
turing, with their gar- 
risons, important Russian 
forts that had been left 
behind in the great retreat. Through Bukowina and 
Galicia his army rolled in a great flood, even faster 
than it had crossed this same ground in September, 
1914. Prisoners in great numbers fell into his hands. 
In the first six weeks of his victorious advance, he took 
over 300,000. And now the Austrians cried lustily for 
help from their German allies. But help could not 
be spared from Germany without abandoning the 
attack on Verdun, and this the Germans could not yet 
bring themselves to do. Accordingly men had to be 




General Brusiloff 



UPS AND DOWNS 



175 



withdrawn from the Italian front, where the Austrian 
attack had been so successful three weeks earlier. 
Italy was quick to take advantage of this, and her 



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men began to win back the territory that Austria 
so recently had gained. From peak to peak they 
fought their way, growing bolder and more aggressive 
as their successes developed. Finally, in the early 



176 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

part of August, General Cadorna, Italian com- 
mander-in-chief, won his greatest triumph in 
the taking of Gorizia, one of the three largest cities 
inhabited by Italians in Austrian territory. The 
Austrian blow at Italy had proved a boomerang. 

For a year and a half no German warships had 
been seen on the high seas. Ever since the Lion, 
Tiger, and their sister ships had sunk the Blucher 
and badly damaged the other German cruisers that 
had started across the North Sea on a raid on the 
defenseless English coast towns, the British navy 
had had only submarines and practice targets at 
which to shoot. 

On the afternoon of May 3 1 , however, as Admiral 
Sir David Beatty, with his fleet of fast battle cruisers, 
was patroling the North Sea, the message was sud- 
denly relayed from ship to ship — "enemy fleet in 
sight." It proved to be the fast battle cruiser 
squadron of the German fleet, commanded by Vice- 
Admiral von Hipper. 

Flashing a wireless to Admiral Sir John Jellicoe, 
who with the Grand Fleet was miles to the north, 
Beatty headed on a southeasterly course, parallel 
to the German ships. Behind him, but too far 
behind to be of any immediate service, came Rear 
Admiral Sir Hugh Evan-Thomas with his squadron 
of four super-dreadnoughts of the Queen Elizabeth 
class. The two battle cruiser squadrons were well 
matched in guns, speed, and size. The British ships 



UPS AND DOWNS 



177 



were slightly the faster and they outnumbered the 
Germans, six to five. But the Germans were eight 
miles to the east, and a gray mist surrounded them, 
while Beatty's ships were silhouetted clearly against 
the western sky. 

A furious battle followed as the two squadrons 
raced southward on parallel courses. The battle 
had raged for a short time 
only when the British 
Indefatigable was struck 
by a heavy shell which 
plunged through the roof 
of her forward turret. 
There was a great explo- 
sion, her magazine blew 
up, and she swung out of 
the battle line, sinking 
rapidly.' Twenty minutes 
later the Queen Mary was 
similarly hit by a shell 
which fell, by plunging 
fire, through her decks. A 

tremendous explosion followed, and the next instant 
the ship had disappeared. A thousand lives had 
been snuffed out in a twinkling. 

Suddenly on the southeastern horizon appeared 
the whole German High Seas Fleet, twenty-two 
battleships and dreadnoughts, besides a great num- 
ber of cruisers and some ninety destroyers. Beatty 
was in imminent danger of being trapped between 




(£) Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Admiral Beatty 



178 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the cruisers on the east and the great battleships 
which were rapidly coming up from the south. He 
turned abruptly and headed for the northwest. 

The German cruisers turned, too, to join their 
battleships in pursuit of Beatty. As they were 
turning,- the four Queen Elizabeths (the Queen 
herself was not among them ; they were the Bar ham, 
the Valiant, the Malaya, and the War spite) con- 
centrated their fire on the new battle cruiser Lutzow, 
a match for the Queen Mary in size and speed, and 
they left her a sinking wreck. The Queen Elizabeths 
turned, too, and headed northward. 

Beatty, with two ships lost, and Evan-Thomas, with 
his four heavy battleships, were fighting the whole 
navy of the German empire. For an hour the 
unequal combat raged. The superior speed of the 
British ships told, and they were able to cross the 
bows of their pursuers and force them to head into 
a more northeasterly course. Beatty and Thomas 
were playing a desperate game — it was possible- 
for them at all times to steam out of range, but they 
were working to lure the Germans on till Jellicoe's 
Grand Fleet might cut them off from retreat — 
they were aiming to capture the whole German 
navy. So they offered their ships as targets, 
fighting back gamely, and straining their eyes for 
a sight of Jellicoe's ships. 

At one time the steering gear of the Warspite 
was put out of commission, and the whole German 
fleet concentrated their fire on her as she turned 



UPS AND DOWNS 179 

around in a little circle. Nevertheless, her captain 
was able finally to get his ship under control and 
to rejoin his consorts. A German cruiser was sunk 
in this part of the fight, for the British ships were 
giving a good account of themselves. 

The Germans, carried away with their success in 
sinking two of Beatty's ships so quickly, were eager 
to finish the others. But now the Grand Fleet was 
in sight. Coming up fast they cut in between the 
German ships and the Danish coast. (Ahead of 
them as an advance guard came some cruisers, 
which, unaware of the presence of the German 
ships, suffered rather severe losses. The Invincible 
and three lighter cruisers went down at this 
point.) The Germans would soon be driven away 
from land, and shut off from their safe return. The 
great British battleships poured a hail of fire 
upon the head of the German fleet, as these 
vessels turned westward, desperately seeking to 
flee. 

It was now after six o'clock, and all that Jellicoe 
needed was another two hours of daylight. But 
after a few minutes of good light, during which the 
battleship Pommern and some of the smaller Ger- 
man cruisers were sent to the bottom, the mist came 
down, and under cover of fog and darkness the High 
Seas Fleet got back to Cuxhaven and the entrance 
of the Kiel Canal, never to venture forth again, 
until the war was over. 

The German papers proclaimed that their navy 



180 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

had won a tremendous victory — that the British 
hold on the seas was broken at last. 

The British were frank to admit their losses — 
three battle cruisers, three smaller cruisers, and eight 
torpedo boat destroyers, but claimed that the 
Germans had suffered more heavily than their 
official report confessed. 

The Germans admitted losing one battleship, 
one battle cruiser, three smaller cruisers, and five 
destroyers, but strongly denied the British claims 
that two more ships, both new dreadnoughts, had 
gone down with the others. 

But, even though the British losses were the 
greater, the relative strength of the two fleets re- 
mained the same. 

After all, the proof of victory lay in the fact that 
never again did the Germans take the risk of coming 
out, while the British fleet roamed the seas, unmo- 
lested, save by mines and submarines. 

Six days after the. battle, a small British cruiser, 
on its way to Russia, struck a mine near the Orkney 
Islands and went down with nearly all on board. 
In this disaster perished Lord Kitchener of Khartoom, 
British Secretary of War and founder of the new Brit- 
ish army that was so soon to take its part in the war. 

For two years Kitchener had advertised for men, 
had shamed the unwilling into enlisting, had called 
for volunteers, and done everything but draft them 
into service. In order to intimidate the British people 
and make them sick of war, Germany had sent over 



UPS AND DOWNS 181 

huge airships, of the kind invented by Count Zep- 
pelin, to drop bombs on the defenseless citizens of 
London, Dover, and other British cities. 

These barbarous and cruel attacks on women and 
children, along with the savage sinking of peaceful 
merchant ships and fishing boats by the submarines, 
did much to inflame the whole British nation into a 
white heat of anger against the Germans. On one 
of these raids a bomb had been dropped through 
the roof of a school house and had burst among the 
children of the kindergarten. The agonizing screams 
of these dying little ones echoed all over Great 
Britain, and had sent hundreds of men to enlist 
who before this time had been rather indifferent to 
the war. 

Kitchener had refused to let his new recruits go 
into battle until they had received a hard course 
of training for several months. He knew that it 
would be a sad mistake to put raw regiments against 
the veteran Germans, trained to war for years, and 
seasoned by twenty-two months of trench fighting. 
But now, though he was gone, his army was ready. A 
million strong, it held nearly one-fifth of the long line 
stretching across northern France. 

The French, too, were ready. Their most daring 
and brilliant general, Ferdinand Foch, had been 
placed by Joflre in command of the troops im- 
mediately south of the British. 

For "the big push," as the British called it, that 
was to come, great quantities of shells had been 



182 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

amassed. Early in 191 5 one of the London papers 
had fearlessly exposed the fact that the Germans 
had ten shells to fire to the British one, and ten big 
guns to one for Great Britain. The British govern- 
ment, which had either ignored this fact or had not 
known it, woke up with a start. Lloyd- George, the 
fiery, energetic little Welshman, had been made 
Minister of Munitions,, and under his galvanic 
force the factories of Great Britain multiplied their 
output of cannon and shells. 

On the first of July the long-expected attack 
began. Opening with a terrific bombardment of 
big shells, the French and British for twenty miles 
on both sides of the little Somme River stormed the 
German trenches. 

The French veterans quickly forced their way 
eastward. Within a few days they had moved 
forward four miles and stood close to the city of 
Peronne. The British, however, met stronger re- 
sistance. In two weeks time they had gained about 
two miles along a front of twelve miles. The Ger- 
mans fought with determination and skill. It was 
only by dogged persistance and the power of 
their big guns that the islanders were able to force 
their way through the wonderfully strong German 
defenses. Still they gained steadily. All through 
July, August, and September they kept hammering 
away. German prisoners and German guns fell into 
their hands. On an ever- widening front the Allies 
were driving a wedge into the German line. By 



UPS AND DOWNS 183 

September they had bitten into it some eight 
miles in places, and were still going forward, slowly, 
against desperate resistance, but doggedly, steadily. 

Meanwhile, at Verdun, the German attacks had 
ceased. Germany needed all her men to hold back 
the Allies along the Somme, — needed them to 
bolster up the Austrians, retreating in the east 
before the victorious Russian advance and in the 
southwest before the advancing Italians. Verdun 
stood safe, — the German boasts were not made good. 

The appearance of German officers among the Aus- 
trian troops fighting the Italians brought the latter 
nation to declare war on Germany — for up to this 
time Italy had been, in name, at war with Austria 
only. This happened during the last week in 
August (191 6) and was followed, the next day, by 
another declaration of war that had been expected for 
some time. 

The little nation of Roumania had been for two 
years the center of a struggle of the diplomats of the 
two opposing groups of powers. Like Bulgaria, she 
had a German king. In fact her ruler was a Hohenzol- 
lern, a distant cousin of the Kaiser. At the beginning 
of the war, old King Carol, wishing to side with his 
German kinsman, had asked General Averescu, 
the commander of the army, what would happen if 
Roumania should throw her lot in with Austria and 
Germany. "I fear that your majesty would be the 
first victim," answered the straightforward old 
soldier. 



184 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Roumania remained neutral. The aged king, Carol, 
died soon after the great war broke out, and his 
nephew Ferdinand, who succeeded him, knowing how 
strong were the sympathies of his people for France, 
England, and Serbia, showed some friendliness him- 
self. His wife, an English princess, and a distant 
cousin of the Tzar, was strongly pro-Ally; and 
Take (ta'ka) Jonescu, the wisest and most popular 
of the Roumanian statesmen, worked early and late 
to force the government to join the Entente. 

Roumanians in great numbers were living in lands 
ruled by other countries. Transylvania, the most 
southeasterly of the states of Austria-Hungary, had 
nearly three million of them. Many others were 
found in Bukowina and the Banat (ba'nat) of 
Temesvar (ta'mesh var), two other Austrian states. 
The Russian county of Bessarabia was full of them, 
and there was a big colony of them also in northern 
Greece and Macedonia. The mother country 
desired to. gather all these lost children into the 
fold once more, and most Roumanians were willing 
to go to war to accomplish this. 

Each side wished her help, and would promise 
her additional lands at the expense of the other 
side, but each was unwilling to give back its own 
Roumanian subjects. It became plain that if Rou- 
manians wished to redeem their brothers in bondage, 
they must fight to do so, for no one was going to 
hand over territories and people to a nation which 
was a mere onlooker at the fight. The day after 



UPS AND DOWNS 185 

Italy declared war on Germany, Roumania an- 
nounced to the world that henceforth a state of 
war should exist between herself and Austria- 
Hungary. 

Cut off from Western Europe by the Austro- 
German- Bulgarian lines and from the open water by 
the Turks, Roumania could turn for help and mu- 
nitions only to her big neighbor, Russia. But 
forces were at work in Petrograd, as you have already 
learned, which were traitorous and dangerous. The 
prime minister, Sturmer, was plotting to help the 
Germans. Certain powerful members of the nobility 
were strongly pro- German. The Tzarina, herself 
a German, was plainly on the side of her own kins- 
men. 

German agents and German spies were everywhere. 
They hampered shipments of supplies, they blew up 
ammunition factories, they worked all kinds of 
mischief. A train load of guns, landed by the 
British on the north coast of Russia, and badly 
needed at the front, was lost for several months. 
It finally was discovered, two thousand miles away, 
in the Ural Mountains. The whole Russian military 
system was full of treachery and double dealing. 

In this state of things, the forces that kept the 
armies supplied at all with food and munitions came 
from the zemtsvos. These were little county gather- 
ings, made up of men elected by the people, who 
managed local affairs. But in this great need, the 
zemtsvos got together, formed a strong, nation-wide 



186 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

committee, and took into their own hands the provi- 
sioning of the men at the front. So, in spite of the 
corrupt court and the pro- German officials, Rus- 
sian armies still could go on fighting, secure in the 
thought that the zemtsvos and the great major- 
ity of the plain people were back of them. 

But in the case of Roumania it was different. 
When the Roumanians had rushed across the moun- 
tains to make a hasty and rashly planned invasion 
of Hungary, they found that their supplies of 
ammunition were giving out and that the new 
quantities promised by the Russian government 
were not being delivered. 

By November there had been a strong invasion of 
Roumania from the south by an army of Turks, 
Bulgars, and Germans. The Roumanian army in 
Transylvania, short of ammunitions and supplies, 
was being driven rapidly backward. 

To the north, the great Russian drive had come 
to a standstill from lack of ammunition and from 
the disorganization of the supply system. The 
great drive of France and England on the Somme 
had gained only about ten miles, after four months 
of terrific effort. The fall rains and the constant 
plowing of the ground by the artillery fire, had 
turned into a sea of mud the land over which any 
further advance must be made. Thus the Germans 
and their allies were able, for the time being, to 
turn their full attention to the brave but inex- 
perienced army of Roumania. 



UPS AND DOWNS 187 

A powerful force, commanded by Von Falkenhayn, 
(no longer chief of the General Staff, since his failure 
at Verdun) advanced upon the Roumanians from the 
north. Breaking through their lines at the elbow 
of the Transylvanian mountains, he forced their 
armies in western Wallachia to retreat westward 
for fear of being cut off. Meanwhile, the attack 
from the south was developing. An army of Turks, 
Bulgars, and Germans under Von Mackensen ad- 
vanced rapidly from the northern boundary of 
Bulgaria, crossed the Danube, and threatened to 
cut off the retreat of the western Roumanian 
forces. 

In her desperate plight Roumania appealed to her 
Allies for help. France sent General Berthelot 
(bairtlo'), one of her best strategists. But Russia 
sent, not the guns, munitions and men that were 
needed, but only promises, and promises, and yet more 
promises. Berthelot saw through it, as did King 
Ferdinand. The pro- German party at the Russian 
court had betrayed them. 

Loyal Russian generals did all they could to assist, 
but the Roumanian army, full of German spies, short 
of food and ammunition, and overwhelmed by 
numbers, lost nearly half its men, and had to 
surrender more than half of Roumania to the enemy. 

Roumanian wheat was taken to Germany in great 
quantities. Roumanian oil wells poured out, for 
trucks and cars, quantities of the fuel that had been 
so scarce in Germany and Austria. Germany, ap- 



1 88 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

parently beaten in September, by Christmas time 
(191 6) was again celebrating wonderful victories. 

These celebrations, however, were like the whis- 
tling of the timid boy, to keep his courage up. 
Down in their hearts the war lords of Germany knew 
that they could never win the smashing victory, 
with its loot and its big indemnities, that they had 
originally planned. What they now wished was to 
make peace on the basis of what they had gained in war 
so far. Already they were planning for the next war. 

Accordingly, hoping to trap the war- weary people 
of Great Britain, France, and Italy, they addressed 
to their enemies a letter (in December, 1916), asking 
whether now it were not possible to talk peace. This 
note began by stating that "our aims are not 
to shatter nor annihilate our adversaries." After 
repeating the old cant about the war's having 
been forced upon them, the note went on to say that 
the German government, " seized with pity in the 
face of the unspeakable misery of humanity," was 
"ready to give peace to the world" by asking the 
people whether it were possible for the warring nations 
"to find a basis for an understanding." 

The answers came, swift and unmistakable. The 
Russian Duma spoke out : resolutions passed by 
a unanimous vote declared that peace was possible 
only after Germany, broken in military power, 
should renounce the greed for conquest "which 
renders her responsible for the world war." 

By an overwhelming vote the Italian Chamber of 



UPS AND DOWNS 189 

Deputies (the law-making body of the nation) 
declared that there should be no peace which was 
not based on the right of small nations, "their honor 
and the free development of their peoples." 

Lloyd-George, who had just become prime minister 
of Great Britain, made a historic speech in which he 
said that Germany must give back what she had 
stolen, pay for the damage that she had done, and 
guarantee that never again would she attempt to 
loot and conquer by force of arms. 

The formal answer of the Allies was along these same 
lines. They declared that ' ' no peace is possible so long 
as we have not secured reparation for violated rights 
and liberties, the recognition of the principle of 
nationality and of the free existence of small states." 

The Kaiser's answer to this was published soon 
afterwards. He said to his soldiers: "I proposed 
to our enemies to enter into peace negotiations. 
Our enemies refused my offer. Their hunger for 
power desires Germany's destruction. 

" Before God and humanity I declare that on the 
governments of our enemies falls the heavy re- 
sponsibility for all the further terrible sacrifices 
from which I wished to save you. 

"With justified indignation at our enemies' ar- 
rogant crime — you will become as steel. 

"Our enemies did not want the understanding 
offered by me. With God's help our arms, will 
enforce it. Wilhelm." 

But in spite of the loud boasts of the Kaiser 



I go HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

there were three small Allied gains made in the 
late fall and early winter that showed Germany what 
was in store for her later. 

For several months all had been quiet at Verdun. 
Both sides held their trenches with strong forces of 
men, but each had wearied of the struggle and was 
merely watching the other closely. 

On the 24th of October, however, General Nivelle 
(nlvel')» who had succeeded Petain as commander 
of the fortress, with four divisions made a surprise 
attack which won back in one day all the ground 
which the Germans had taken at a tremendous 
price, by three months of furious daily assaults, from 
April 1 to the end of June. Fort Douaumont 
(dob 6 mon(g)'), one of the two forts which had 
remained in German hands, was quickly taken, and 
the French turned such a terrific fire upon the other, 
Fort Vaux (vo), that the enemy were forced to 
abandon it a few days later. 

In the meantime there was stirring along the 
Salonica front. Besides the original army of French 
and British, there had been added a detachment of 
Russians and some Italians. The Russians had 
come by a long and roundabout route, to fight 
shoulder to shoulder with their Allies. In like 
manner a Russian division had been landed at 
Marseilles and amid the hearty enthusiasm of the 
French people had been transferred to the front 
in Champagne. Russia had plenty of men, but, as 
stated before, was short of guns and munitions. 



UPS AND DOWNS 191 

Meanwhile, another nation was sending its fighting 
men to the Salonica front. You will recall that when 
the armies of Germany, Austria, and Bulgaria over- 
ran Serbia in the early winter of 191 5-1 6 the main 
part of the Serbian forces escaped over the Albanian 
mountains to the coast, where Allied ships met them 
and carried them to the island of Corfu. 

After a good rest they were refitted with weapons 
and uniforms and carried around Greece to Salonica. 
Out of the original Serb army of three hundred 
thousand men there remained a little over one- third, 
but these were mostly the flower of the nation, 
veterans of three wars, a body of men that for valor 
and war wisdom could hardly be matched anywhere 
in the world. 

This magnificent force of fighting men, ready once 
more for front line duty, proved a powerful rein- 
forcement to General Sarrail. He at once gave 
them their hearts' dearest wish, which was to be 
brought face to face with the hated Bulgars and 
Hungarians. 

All through the late summer and fall continuous 
attacks were made on the Bulgarian lines. The 
Serbs fought like madmen. In October, supported 
by French and British forces, they drove the Bulgars 
from the Grecian boundary and stood once more 
upon the soil of their own country. Finally, on 
November 19, they entered the important city of 
Monastir, which the enemy had held for exactly 
one year. North of Monastir was a rocky and 



192 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

forbidding mountain range which the retreating 
Bulgars and Austrians had fortified with great care. 
Here for the time being the Serbs and their allies 
were halted. 

Nevertheless, it was evident that the Serbs, in- 
stead of being crushed and conquered, were still 
very much to be reckoned with in the Balkan war 
game. Also it was plain that the Bulgars were not 
fighting with the same zest and enthusiasm that 
their opponents showed. In fact, it leaked out that 
there was a serious difference of opinion among the 
Bulgars. Many of the people resented the fact 
that at the command of their German king they 
had been forced to ally themselves with the Turks, 
infidel oppressors of their ancestors, to fight 
against Russia, the country which had won their 
freedom for them and befriended them so many 
times in the past. This party of Russophiles 
(friends of Russia) was very strong. When Russian 
warships appeared off the Bulgarian port of Varna, 
on the Black Sea, two Bulgarian regiments refused 
to obey the orders of their officers to fire upon 
them. It was found necessary in order to quell 
the mutiny to bring up four other regiments re- 
cruited from among the Armenians who in 1895 had 
settled in Bulgaria. 

These Armenians had no feeling, either for or 
against the Russians, but they had a lively hatred of 
the Turks, whose cruel massacres of their fathers had 
driven them to take refuge in Bulgaria. They, too, 



UPS AND DOWNS 193 

were not happy over the Turkish alliance. Bulgaria, 
on the whole, was not a prop to the German military 
machine, but rather a source of weakness, requiring 
to be bolstered up and kept in a happy mood by 
news of great German victories. 

Another event which disturbed the peace of mind 
of the German war lords was an enterprise of the 
French army at Verdun. There had been quiet on 
this part of the front, following the victorious entry 
of the French into Fort Vaux on November 5. 

On December 12, the French guns began pound- 
ing the German lines on the west of the Meuse 
River. On the fifteenth, the attack was suddenly 
shifted to the east bank of the river. Without 
warning the infantry shot forward. The Germans 
were taken by surprise. With wonderful accuracy 
the French guns supported their advancing men. 
The batteries of the Germans, already spotted by 
the airmen, were overwhelmed before they could get 
into action. At the first rush the famous Pepper 
Hill, which had cost the Germans so many lives in 
the bloody battles of March, was covered by a wave 
of the men in sky blue. While the prisoners were 
pouring in, the victorious French, now in a position 
to fire eastward down the length of the German 
trenches, swept on, cleaning out the machine gun 
nests as they went. After a day and a half of furious 
assault they rested. 

Their lines had been advanced by a mile or two 
over a front of six miles. All the ground that the 



194 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Germans had won in the terrible fighting of the five 
weeks following February 26, ground purchased 
at the cost of a hundred thousand German lives, 
was retaken in less than thirty-six hours. The 
French lost seven thousand men, in killed and 
wounded, out of the eighty thousand engaged in the 
attack. Five German divisions, nearly a hundred 

thousand men, had been 
used up in the defense. 
They had lost ten thou- 
sand unwounded men as 
prisoners, besides killed 
and wounded amounting 
to more than twice this 
number. It was a clean- 
cut victory of careful 
planning and intelligent 
fighting, reflecting credit 
upon General Mangin 
(man'zhan(g)'), who led 
the assault, and upon Ni- 
velle, his chief. 
The year's campaign in the west had begun with 
an example of the dogged, stubborn courage of the 
French soldier, holding the blood-stained hills of 
Verdun against the whole might of the German army. 
The year closed with an example of what the same 
Frenchman could do, when intelligently led and 
backed by his superb artillery. 

Both augured well for the staying power of 




General Berthelot 



UPS AND DOWNS . 195 

France (France whom the Kaiser boasted that he 
would " bleed white") and lent point to the efforts 
of the war lords to bring about a German peace. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. What great change had taken place in the battle lines during 

1915? 

2. Why was the Grand Duke Nicholas unable to reach Con- 
stantinople from the East ? 

3. Why did Falkenhayn insist on the attack on France? 

4. What saved Verdun ? 

5. Why was Townshend's army forced to surrender? 

6. What was the reason for Austria's attack on Italy ? 

7. How did Brusiloff trap the Austrians? 

8. Why could Italy retrieve her early defeat? 

9. What was the German plan and what Beatty's plan in the 
great naval battle ? 

10. Why did the German fleet escape ? 

11. What was the effect upon recruiting in England of German 
air raids and submarine attacks ? 

12. Why was the British army so slow in getting into shape? 

13. What induced Roumania to enter the war? 

14. What saved the Russian armies from the pro-Germans? 

15. What was the chief reason for Roumania's defeat? 

16. Why were Germany and Austria anxious for peace in December, 
1916? 

17. How did the Serbs get back into the battle? 

18. Why were the many Bulgarians dissatisfied with the war? 

19. Why was great credit due the French for these victories near 
Verdun? 



CHAPTER VIII 
The Issue Plain 

President Wilson's appeal and the answers. — Slavery for Belgians and 
French. — The black flag at last. — The Russian Revolution. — 
Milioukoff, Kerensky, Lenin, and Trotzky. — The strategic 
retreat of the Germans. — A Hunnish deed. — The British in 
Bagdad. — Dr. Zimmerman helps to unite the American people. 

— Our declaration of war. — The joy of the Entente. — Nivelle 
at the Chemin des Dames. — The British at Vimy and Messines. 

— Progress on the Carso. — Portugal and Greece. — Kerensky, 
the compromiser. — Russia's last effort. — Reprisals through the 
air at last. — Curtain at Verdun. 

In the closing days of 191 6 — just a week, in 
fact, after the peace "feeler" of the Germans and 
their allies, President Wilson sent a note to each of 
the warring nations, asking them to state on what 
terms they would be willing to make peace. 

So far the United States had been able to keep 

out of the struggle. Germany and Austria had been 

inflaming the minds of their subjects against us, by 

complaining bitterly that the United States was 

selling munitions to Britain and France, and not to 

the Central Powers. Americans of German origin 

were stirred up by agents of the Kaiser to demand 

that Congress prohibit the export of materials for 

war purposes. 

This accusation, however, was partially silenced 

196 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 197 

when a great German submarine boat made two 
trips across the Atlantic and carried back valuable 
metals and rubber that could not be secured in any 
other way. The United States was ready to sell 
munitions to any nation which came to buy ; it was 
not our fault that England, and not Germany, held 
command of the seas. Still, there were loud com- 
plaints from Germany that we were not neutral. 
But the case of the Lusitania, on the other hand, 
and that of several other ships which were torpedoed 
without warning, kept our government continually on 
the brink of war. The mass of the American people, 
although the great majority of them were anxious 
for Allied victory, were earnestly hoping that we 
might keep out of the war. We are a peace- 
loving, non-militaristic people, and it seemed to us a 
brutal and senseless manner of settling a dispute, 
to go out slaughtering and maiming men who had 
never personally harmed us. Some leaders, among 
them ex- President Roosevelt, were loudly denounc- 
ing the apparent weakness and cowardice, as they 
put it, of our government for not having declared 
war on Germany as soon as the Lusitania was sunk. 
At any rate, there was room for apprehension on 
the part of the President, for we might sooner or 
later be drawn in, and as he had been reelected on 
the plea that "he kept us out of war," he wished to 
make one sincere effort to bring the contest to a 
close. 

In his note to the warring nations he says, in so 



198 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

many words : ' 4 What are you fighting for ? Each 
side says that they did not wish war — that it was 
forced upon them. The nations of each side say 
that the rights of small nations must be protected. 
Each side wants to be safe against attack in the 
future. If this is all you wish, why fight ? Let us 
hear you state the terms on which you would be 
willing to make peace." 

The German and Austrian governments were the 
first to reply. Entirely ignoring the President's 
request that they state their terms of peace, they 
proposed "the speedy assembly, on neutral grounds, 
of delegates of the warring nations." 

The reply of France, Great Britain, and their 
Allies was returned early in January, 191 7. It 
stated, in a courteous manner, that the President 
was hardly fair when he said that apparently both 
groups of warring nations desired the same end ; that 
Germany and her allies had insisted on the war, that 
they had waged war for conquest and plunder, in a 
manner unworthy of any nation that called herself 
civilized. 

Then they stated their terms : First, the restora- 
tion of Belgium, Serbia, and Montenegro with the in- 
demnities due them ; then withdrawal of their enemies 
from the invaded parts of Russia, France, and Rou- 
mania, with just payment for damage done ; the 
reorganization of Europe on a basis which would 
give all nations, great and small alike, freedom and 
security from attack ; the giving back of lands taken 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 199 

by force in the past, the freeing of the Italians, 
Roumanians, South Slavs, and Czecho-Slovaks from 
foreign rule, the driving of the Turkish Empire out 
of Europe ; the reestablishment of the Polish nation. 

While insisting that they had no thought of 
destroying- the German nation, they stated that 
Europe must be freed from Prussian militarism, 
and that as Germany began the war, so the Allies 
must end it only by a complete victory, upon which 
depended, not only their own safety, but the future 
of civilization itself. 

A few days went by, and then the world was given 
a fresh shock, a fresh proof of the utter disregard 
of the German government for the rules of civilized 
warfare. Only recently it had become known that 
the Germans, being short of men, had carried off, by 
force, at the point of the bayonet, men and women 
of Belgium and that part of France which was held 
by their armies and had compelled these captives to 
work like slaves, without pay, in German factories 
where shells and guns were made. Wives were torn 
from husbands and mothers and fathers from their 
children. All the civilized world protested, the Pope 
sent a note of strong disapproval, but Germany 
needed the workers, and what she needed she took ! 
So Belgian and French women were compelled to 
make the munitions that went back to kill their own 
people. 

But although the world thought that the govern- 
ment at Berlin had already gone to the limit of bru- 



200 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

tality, on January 31, 191 7, it learned that some- 
thing new in this line could still come out of Ger- 
many. For on that day the Chancellor announced 
in the Reichstag (and formal notice was sent to the 
still neutral nations) that beginning the next day 
German submarines would send to the bottom of 
the sea, without warning, any ship found in the waters 
surrounding the British Isles and France. This ap- 
plied both to the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. 

This was Germany's answer to the statement of 
the peace terms of her enemies. 

In a separate note, addressed to the United States, 
the German government agreed that once a . week 
a ship might sail from America to England, if it 
traveled along the 50th parallel of latitude, and 
was marked with red, white, and blue stripes, "with 
a yellow streak around the captain's cabin," so that 
the submarines would know it. In another note to 
the United States, it was stated that England and 
her allies were "violating all rules of international 
law" in preventing neutral nations from trading 
with Germany. Therefore, Germany proposed to 
remove all restrictions in using her submarines. The 
note went on to say that this submarine campaign 
would quickly force the peace which the United 
States so much desired, so that, of course, the 
Germans were confident that the United States would 
' ' understand the necessity of adopting such meas- 
ures as are destined to bring about a speedy end of 
the horrible and useless bloodshed!" 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 201 

This supposedly civilized nation, which had been 
proclaiming that she was fighting for "the freedom 
of the seas" and which had solemnly promised the 
United States in May, 191 6, that she would never 
again sink a merchant vessel without warning, 
now flung to the air the black flag and turned 
pirate on a scale that the world had never before 
dreamed of. 

In his address to the Reichstag the German 
Chancellor explained that the reason he had prom- 
ised the United States, eight months before, that 
there should be no torpedoing without warning, was 
that Germany at that time had not built enough 
submarines to make a success of starving England. 
But that now, with poor harvests of wheat in the 
Entente nations, it would probably be only a short 
time till England was brought to her knees by 
famine. The U-boats would sink enough cargoes 
of wheat and meat to starve out, not only Great 
Britain, but also France and Italy, each of whom 
depended, for much of her food, on overseas trade. 

We are told that a considerable party among the 
Germans opposed this " unrestricted " submarine 
war, not because it was brutal and inhuman, but 
for fear it might bring into the war the United States 
and other neutral nations. The sea- Junkers, how- 
ever, pointed out that as the United States had only 
a very small army, it would take several years before 
she could put any troops on the fighting front in 
France, whereas the submarine boats would sink 



202 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

vessels so rapidly that Great Britain, starved into 
surrender, would make peace within six months. 

On January 31, Count von BernstorfT, German 
Ambassador to the United States, handed our Secre- 
tary of State the German note. Three days later, 
Secretary Lansing handed Herr von BernstorfT his 
passports, and informed him that the steamer which 
was to take him back to Germany would sail very 
promptly. 

The President went before Congress and an- 
nounced that he had recalled our Ambassador from 
Berlin and that he had broken off all relations with 
the German government, and with a roar of approval, 
Congress voted that he had done well ! 

Meanwhile, in Russia, things were going badly 
for the pro- German party. In November, 191 6, 
Professor Paul Milioukoff (mil yoo'koff) had risen 
in the Duma and, amid the thunderous applause of 
the true patriots in that body, had exposed the pro- 
German plotting of Sturmer and his followers. As 
a result, Sturmer had been forced to resign. 

The treacherous conduct of his friends, however, 
still continued. Many of these men were hoarding 
food supplies with the idea of selling them, later, at 
a great profit. This was causing a shortage, espe- 
cially in the cities, and the hungry people began to 
murmur, and utter threats against the government. 
Riots and outbreaks against the tyrannical rule of 
the court were not new in Petrograd, but the gov- 
ernment had always been able to rely upon the 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 203 

soldiers, especially the Cossacks, who were horse- 
men from a tribe living in the southwestern part 
of Russia, and who enjoyed much more freedom 
than the Russians themselves. 

On the 8th of March, 191 7, the crowds in Petro- 
grad were more numerous and more threatening than 
ever before. People demanded bread, and talked of 
a general strike (everybody to quit work) in order to 
force the government to seek out the food supplies 
that they were sure were being hoarded. 

Soldiers were sent into the city to keep order. 
But they, too, murmured against the government and 
sympathized with the people. Even the Cossacks 
caught the infection. They were actually cheered 
as they rode through the streets, for the people felt 
that the Cossacks were with them. Two days later 
an order was issued by the police, commanding people 
to stop parading the streets. This was too much. 
Up to this point there had been no violence. Now 
the mob showed its teeth — it would not be dispersed. 
The police opened fire ; but — to their astonishment 
and chagrin — the soldiers in the city, even the 
Cossacks, took the side of the mob. 

Other regiments, loyal to the government, were 
rushed into the city. Orators from the revolting 
troops begged the newcomers not to fire on their 
"brothers." There was a dramatic pause, with the 
two bodies of troops, rifle in hand, facing each other 
from opposite sides of the street, while the peace- 
makers rushed back and forth between them. After 



204 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



half an hour of this tense situation, the hitherto 
loyal troops threw down their arms and rushed 
across the street to fraternize with the revolutionists. 
Word was sent to the Tzar that the situation was 
grave. He made the crowning mistake of his life, by 

ordering the Duma to ad- 
journ. The Duma refused 
to adjourn, and supported 
/ t QIP\ by the people of the city 

jj| and the revolting soldiers, 

it solemnly voted that the 
right to rule the nation 
belonged not to the Tzar, 
but to the representatives 

f»* W0^' "-^ES^ii °^ ^ e p e °pi e - 
0^2$- - JmJEm Word reached the gen- 
erals at the front of what 
had happened at the capi- 
tal, and they promptly 
agreed to support the new 
government. The well- 
meaning but misled Tzar tried to resign the crown 
to his brother. But the Duma was through with the 
Romanoff (ro ma'noff ) family. Their new govern- 
ment, a cabinet, was composed of some of the ablest 
and most patriotic men in Russia. 

But the new government lived only by tolerance 
of the mob. And a Russian mob was an unstable 
thing, swayed, because of their ignorance, by any 
"soap-box orator" who might harangue them. 




Nicholas ii 
Tzar of all the Russias 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 



205 



When Professor Milioukoff assured the Allies that 
Russia would go on fighting, the mob, ignorant of 
the great issues at stake, howled their disapproval, 
and forced his resigna- 
tion as foreign minister 
of the new government. 

Back from Switzer- 
land, helped by the 
German authorities, 
and supplied liberally 
with German gold, 
came Nicholas Lenin 
(Lenin') (whose real 
name was Ulianoff) 
(ool ya'noff) a radical 
leader, banished by the 
Tzar's government. 
Back from America came Leon Trotzky (whose 
real name was Herman Braunstein) another fanatic 
and former Nihilist. 

The Milioukoff government lived but a short 
while. A young lawyer, Alexander Kerensky, be- 
came the real ruler of Russia, thanks to his ability 
to sway the crowds by his eloquence. He had been 
Minister of Justice in the Milioukoff cabinet and had 
shown his poor judgment by ordering the release of 
all prisoners within the jails of Russia. Although 
many of these were political prisoners, shut in for 
opposing the tyrannical rule of the old government, 
the majority of them were cutthroats, thieves, and 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Alexander Kerensky 



206 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



ruffians, who took advantage of their new-found 
liberty to take up, now unmolested by the police, 
their old-time trade of robbery and murder. 

The better class of Russians had no patience with 
Lenin and Trotzky and agitators of their type. To 

these jail birds, however, 
and to the hungry, ignorant 
mobs of the great cities, the 
doctrine of Lenin, that all 
property should be held in 
common, seemed like a 
heaven-sent plan. Al- 
though at first he was 
howled down when he at- 
tempted to speak, his plen- 
tiful supply of German 
money won him followers 
among those who could be 
bribed and his party began to gather strength in a way 
that boded no good for the Kerensky government. 

In the meantime, important events were happen- 
ing. The steady pressure of the British and French 
armies on the Somme River was beginning to be 
felt heavily. To be sure, their progress was slow, 
but their success was not marked entirely in territory 
gained. They were killing and capturing Germans, 
blasting them out of one trench after another, wound- 
ing them and weakening their resisting power. The 
courage of the German troops was always good, 
but depression seized them, as they saw themselves 




Nikolai Lenin 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 207 

unable to hold their new trenches, and unable to 
stay long enough in one line to make it unbreak- 
able. 

The mud of the fall and winter had halted the 
great drive of the British and French, but the Ger- 
man armies and airmen could see wide roads being 
built and giant guns placed in position, and great 
heaps of ammunition being piled up for a renewal 
of the attack as soon as the spring had dried up the 
winter's moisture. The Allies were biting in so 
deeply on the Somme that there was danger of their 
breaking through and catching in the rear the 
Germans who stood at Roye (rwa), Noyon (nwa- 
yon(g)'), and Lassigny (las sin yi')- Accordingly, the 
Germans began to construct a new line of trenches, 
varying from three to twenty miles behind their old 
positions. French men and women, inhabitants of 
this region, were compelled to labor on these works, 
as were the prisoners, — all this in direct violation of 
the rules of war as laid down by the nations at the 
Hague Convention and signed, among others, by 
Germany. 

This new line curved around the hills and plateaus 
which were covered by the forests of Coucy (coo'sy) 
and St. Gobain (go ban (g)'); from these points it 
ran north and a little west, passing two miles west 
of La Fere (la fair) and St. Quentin (kan tan(g)'), 
and crossing the Bapaume-Cambrai road about mid- 
way between the two cities. It met the old trench 
lines at the southern end of Vimy Ridge, the slope 



2 o8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

which had cost the French so many gallant lives in 
their efforts to take it. 

It was not a single line ; it was a series of lines, 
each in itself a terrible obstacle to overcome. In 
many places it took advantage of the Canal du Nord 
(nor) and other artificial waterways. The English 
had developed powerful land battleships, familiarly 
known as "tanks," which crawled over the ground 
on endless belts instead of wheels. These great 
monsters, equipped with artillery, crashed through 
barbed-wire fences as though there were nothing in 
their way, and crawled across ordinary trenches as 
if on level ground. They had spread terror among 
the German ranks. A deep, wide canal or a good- 
sized stream alone would stop them. Hence the use 
of the waterways. 

In the middle of March, the Germans began 
quietly, little by little, to transfer their troops to 
the rear of the new defenses. This retreat was 
very skillfully and secretly carried out on a front 
of over seventy miles. The French toward the 
south of the line awoke to what was going on, and 
a pursuit of the Germans was begun which demor- 
alized the retreat almost into a rout in places, 
but the British remained seemingly unconscious 
until the Germans were safely back behind their 
new lines. 

Although the newspapers of the Allied nations made 
all manner of fun of the German claims that this was a 
"retreat to victory," it is plain that the plans of Haig 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 209 

and of Nivelle (who had followed Joffre, as French 
commander-in-chief) were seriously upset. As they 
retreated the Germans had made a desert of the land 
that they were giving up. Over a thousand square 
miles of French land was regained and in all this dis- 
trict hardly one stone was left standing upon another. 
Not only were the roads, bridges, and railroads 
blown up, but every private house was leveled to the 
ground. Wells were poisoned and every tree was 
felled. Rage and bitterness filled the hearts of the 
Frenchmen as they marched on the heels of the 
Germans into what had been a happy, smiling coun- 
try, the fairest in France. The British were almost 
equally filled with indignation. They never spoke 
of their enemy as Germans; always as "Huns," in 
memory of the savage tribe that had swept over 
Europe nearly fifteen hundred years before. But not 
even the Huns, or the Vandals, Germans of olden 
times, had ever laid waste a country with the sys- 
tematic, fiendish thoroughness with which this land 
of France was devastated in the year of our Lord 
191 7, by the rulers of a nation that had a contempt 
for the civilization (Kultur) of the rest of the world, 
as being inferior to their own. 

A thousand square miles of France, as has been 
said, were freed from German control. But of the 
miserable inhabitants of this region only the sick, 
the crippled, the old, and the very young were left 
in their ruined homes. Every able-bodied man 
and woman had been dragged away as a slave 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 211 

to work in the fields or the factories of the Ger- 
mans. 

While this advance was taking place along the 
western front, in the far-off valley of the Tigris the 
second British expedition was meeting with better 
success than the ill-fated invasion of General Town- 
shend. 

Sir Frederick Maude did not underestimate his 
enemy, as Townshend had done. He knew that he- 
was dealing with as brave a body of men as ever- 
carried arms and that they were led and drilled by 
Germans whose life work had been the development 
of the art of war. The fortifications at Kut-el- 
Amara, the scene of Townshend' s surrender, proved 
a difficult obstacle. The position of the town 
gave the Turks an excellent opportunity to in- 
trench, protected as it was by the Tigris on three 
sides. However, after some brilliant strategic moves, 
General Maude threw his cavalry north of the 
town on the west bank of the river, and then crossing 
the stream in the rear of the Turks, threatened to 
cut off their retreat to Bagdad. The result was 
a speedy withdrawal from Kut, and a headlong 
flight up the river. Again and again the British 
horsemen, paralleling on the west bank the Turkish 
retreat on the east side, by threatening to get be- 
tween them and their source of supplies turned 
them out of position after position. All this was 
happening during February and early March, 191 7. 

The Turks made a desperate attempt to hold 



212 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the line of the Diala (di a/la) River, but, on March 8, 
the British forced the crossing of this stream, and 
three days later they entered Bagdad unopposed, for 
the Turks were fleeing rapidly up the river. Thus 
the famous Mesopotamian city, the eastern terminus 
of the great German railway, fell into the hands of 
the British, and all hope of a German trade conquest 
of the East began to fade. 

The inhabitants, the majority of whom were not 
Turks, but Arabs, with a mixture of Armenians, 
Persians, Hindoos, and Jews, welcomed the end 
of the Turkish rule, and received the British as 
liberators. 

General Maude did not stay to enjoy the triumph, 
but hurried north on the trail of the fleeing 
enemy. After driving them northward for fifty miles, 
he had to pause. His men had outrun their supplies. 
It was a serious task to transport munitions and 
food for so large an army in a country where there 
were no good roads, and the river was the only 
means of communication. . . . 

Let us return for a time to the United States. 
In spite of the breaking off of relations with Ger- 
many, the great mass of our people still hoped 
that we might be kept out of the war. They looked 
upon it as a European quarrel in which we had no 
concern. In the latter part of February, however, 
our State Department gave to the newspapers a 
note, caught by one of the secret service agents of 
our government, which had been sent from the 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 213 

German embassy in Washington to the German min- 
ister in Mexico. As they read it, our peace-loving 
people boiled up, overnight, in a fighting rage. 

The message, signed by Dr. Zimmermann, the Ger- 
man Foreign Secretary, and dated January 19, ordered 
the German Ambassador, in case the United States 
broke off relations with Germany over the torpedoing 
of her merchant vessels, to propose to the Mexicans 
to declare war on the United States. Germany 
would declare war also, and would agree to make no 
separate peace without Mexico. Mexico was to be 
urged to approach Japan with offers to bring about 
peace between Japan and Germany and war between 
Japan and the United States. The ambassador was 
told, also, to make it plain to the Mexicans that they 
would be sure to be on the winning side, for the 
submarine campaign would ' ' force England to make 
peace in a few months." Mexico's reward for allying 
herself with Germany was to receive back her ' ' lost 
territory" — Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona. 
Nothing was said about California ; that was evi- 
dently to be left for Japan ! 

The majority of the German newspapers published 
in this country denounced the note as a clumsy 
forgery, "planted" by British secret agents, in order 
to inflame the people of the United States against 
Germany. They pointed out that no German states- 
man, even if he were unscrupulous enough to form 
such a plan against a friendly nation, would be so 
stupid as to think that the great state of Texas, to say 



214 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



nothing of New Mexico and Arizona, would ever 
submit to Mexican rule. 

Just as this "alibi" was nicely framed up, Dr. 
Zimmermann himself proceeded to knock the props 
out from under it ' by stating, with an engaging 
frankness, that of course he had written the note. 
He expressed astonishment that the note had stirred 
up so much of a row. Wasn't it good strategy to 
make as much trouble as possible for a nation that 
soon might be your enemy? As a matter of fact, 
the United States was already Germany's enemy; 
the only reason the Americans had not declared war 
was that they could give more help to Great Britain 
and France as a neutral than as an ally ! 

So spoke Dr. Zimmermann. The Americans of 
German descent had their eyes opened, at last, to 
the standards of honesty and morality held up in 
government circles at Berlin ; and the great majority 
of them swung over to the side of their adopted 
country. It was all very well for them to sympathize 
with the Kaiser when he attacked France and 
Belgium. But now he and his agents were plotting 
against the peace and welfare of the United States — 
and that was a different matter. 

Weeks passed, and the brutal murders on the 
high seas continued. One American ship was 
sent down — then another. Congress had ad- 
journed, but the President, calling the members to- 
gether in a special session, told them, on April 2, 
that a state of war had been thrust upon us by the 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 215 

German Imperial Government. American ships were 
being sunk and American citizens murdered on the 
high seas. Even hospital ships, plainly marked 
with the Red Cross, and ships carrying food given 
by Americans to the starving people of Belgium 
had not been spared. No other course was left us, 
said he, but to enter the conflict with all our hearts 
and souls, and to end, once for all, this brutal method 
of warfare. 

The world must be made safe for democracy. 
With the German people, we had no quarrel. But 
with their autocratic government, we must fight. 
With the passing of the Tzar, the last autocrat on 
the side of the Allies had been removed. The new 
Russian Republic was a fit partner in the league 
of nations, where the people ruled. The issue was 
plain at last. It was autocracy, military governments 
controlled by Junkers and feudal chiefs, against 
democracy, the rule of the people. With a great 
outbreak of patriotic feeling, four days later, the Con- 
gress passed, by an overwhelming vote, a resolution 
stating that we were at war with Germany. 

The ships of the United States Navy, alert and 
seaworthy always, slipped from their moorings and 
swung across the great Atlantic to convoy merchant- 
men and to hunt down the pirates from under the 
sea. We had only a small army, as was fitting for a 
nation which had none but kindly feeling for its 
neighbors. (During the first year of the great war, a 
large number of Germans could not understand why 



216 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the United States did not take advantage of England's 
troubles by seizing Canada by force of arms !) 

To increase this army was our first problem. Two 
months after our declaration of war, Congress passed 
a law drafting all young men between the ages of 
twenty-one and thirty- one. They were called before 
boards, composed of three men in each district, and 
were either sent into the army, or excused from service 
because they were not sound in body, or because 
they were needed in more important work at home, 
or because they had families who would be in 
distress without their support. 

By October, there were almost a million men in 
the United States army, and the number was growing 
at the rate of two hundred thousand a month. 
Officers' training schools were opened all over the 
country. British and French veterans came over to 
teach our men all that they had learned in two and 
a half years of modern warfare. 

Shipyards were set up on all our coasts. Men 
set to work with a will, making new ships to carry 
our soldiers across, to carry the tons and tons of 
supplies that our army needed, and to convey to 
Europe the munitions and above all the food that 
the Allies so sadly lacked. 

In Allied lands the entry of the United States 
into the war was greeted with frantic joy. The 
newspapers and statesmen of Great Britain, France, 
and Italy hailed the event as "the turning point of 
war," They praised our action as unselfish and 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 217 

generous. Having nothing to gain for ourselves, 
they said, we had come into the struggle to save 
Europe from a military despotism, to safeguard 
the rights of small nations. 

April 19 was made ''American Day," in Great 
Britain, and the Stars and Stripes flew from the 
Victoria Tower of Parliament House, an honor that 
no other nation had ever before enjoyed. 

In June, the first American soldiers went across, 
with General John J. Pershing as Commander-in- 
Chief of our army in Europe. 

The British gave them a wonderful reception. 
From the King to the street boy, all London turned 
out to do them honor. 

But this welcome, warm as it was, could not be 
compared with their greeting in Paris. England had 
not been invaded as France had been. Her mighty 
navy stood between her and the German hordes. 
But Paris was only seventy miles from the German 
lines ; and between French civilization and destruc- 
tion by the enemy there stood as a bulwark only a 
thin line of small, wiry, determined men, clad in their 
faded, sky-blue uniforms. As the victor of the Marne 
stood beside the American general on the balcony of 
the Military Club, looking down on the screaming, 
tumultuous crowd, some one cried out "Vive [viv 
(long live)] Joffre, who kept us from defeat ! Vive 
Pershing, who brings to us the victory !" 

But we are getting ahead of our story. Important 
events were taking place on the fighting fronts. 




y_y Brown Bros. 

General Pershing Delivering an Address at the Tomb of 
Lafayette (Note Marshal Joffre applauding) 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 219 

General Nivelle, the new commander of the 
French, was a man of action. He proposed to blast 
the Germans out of France. While the British were 
striking hard blows in the north, Nivelle suddenly 
flung his men at the German trenches which 
stretched along from Soissons for forty miles eastward. 

These were the unusually strong positions among 
the limestone cliffs and stone quarries which the in- 
vaders had held since September, 19 14. Very strong 
by nature, they had been made almost impregnable 
by tunnels, caves, and dugouts, cut so deeply into the 
solid rock that whole regiments could take shelter in 
them from the terrific fire of the French artillery, 
and be ready to come to the top in time to meet 
the infantry charges. 

The Germans had known from their spies that the 
attack was coming, and they had massed men and 
guns to meet it. Nevertheless, the French troops 
swarmed up the hills through a withering fire, with 
a dash that carried all before it. Along the whole 
front the first line trenches were taken, and thou- 
sands of prisoners were sent to the rear. 

On the 1 8th of April (19 17), the Germans brought 
up nearly a quarter of a million of fresh troops, but 
all to no avail. For another two weeks the French 
drove them steadily back, piercing the line first 
here, then there, but always going ahead, always 
bagging prisoners. 

There is a famous old road, named the Road of the 
Ladies (Chemindes Dames) (she man (g) da dam), built 



220 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



long ago along the heights of the Aisne for the con- 
venience of some ladies of the court of King Louis XV. 
This road, and the ridge along which it ran, were to be 
the scene of some of the most desperate fighting of 
the whole war. Only the shot-scarred hills of Verdun 

can lay claim to equal 
slaughter. By the first 
week in May, Nivelle 's 
men were masters of the 
whole ridge, including the 
village of Craonne 
(cra6n'). 

But somebody in Paris 
was not satisfied. The 
cost of the victory, in killed 
and wounded, fright- 
ened the politicians. There 
were secret forces at work, 
too, that would not bear 
the light of day. Ex- 
Caillaux (cayo') was in- 
were dealing with the 
it cannot be 




General Xivelle 



Prime Minister Joseph 

triguing with men who 

Germans. It is whispered, though 

proved, that these people were afraid that Nivelle 

would win too big a victory, and that they wanted 

him removed, along with General Mangin, another 

fighter whose name had come to be feared by the 

Germans. 

Be that as it may, within the next month Nivelle 
was reduced, and General Henri Petain, Nivelle s 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 221 

predecessor at Verdun, became commander-in-chief 
of the French armies on the western front. Fifty- 
two thousand Germans had been captured since 
April 1 , and the Ladies' Road from Laflaux (laf fo') to 
Craonne lay wholly behind the French lines. There 
are many who believe that Nivelle's system was 
winning, and that had he been allowed to hammer 
away, the German front might have been broken 
a year sooner than it finally was. 

Meanwhile, the British, too, were busy. On 
April 9, they had opened a terrific attack on the 
German lines north of Arras. The famous Vimy 
Ridge, a hill some two hundred feet high and a mile 
long, which had been the scene of bloody struggles 
in 1915, was taken by the Canadians, who, having 
dug in under it, exploded their mines just before 
their rush. German prisoners came pouring in, 
while Haig's men pushed on. They took village after 
village and threatened the whole district around the 
city of Lens, the center of the coal-mining country 
in northern France. 

The new unbreakable defense lines constructed 
by the Germans before the " strategic retreat" were 
called by the Allies the Hindenburg Line, because it 
was understood that this retreat was made by the 
order of the old field marshal, who, since Falken- 
hayn's failure at Verdun, had been chief of the Ger- 
man General Staff. The Germans themselves named 
various parts of the line after heroes of the old 
mythology. They spoke of the Wotan (vo tan) 



222 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Line, the Siegfried (seeg'freed) Line, the Kriemhilde 
(kreem hil'da) Line. 

The main Hindenburg line just south of Lens was 
broken by the British, and the Germans had to 
retire to a second position, still stronger than the 
first, which the British called the Queant-Drocourt 
(ka'an(g)'-dro cooV) Switch Line from the two towns 
which stood at its ends. 

On the seventh of June, the British struck another 
mighty blow for which they had been preparing for 
over a year. You will remember the old Belgian 
city of Ypres, to which the British had clung as 
grimly as the French to Verdun. Just south of 
Ypres the German lines curved around a long hill 
which was known as the Messines-Wytschaete 
(mes sm'-witshee'tee') Ridge, from two towns which 
stood at its ends. From this elevation, the highest 
ground along the German lines for many a mile, the 
enemy's big guns had shelled the British trenches 
and the ruined city of Ypres for two and a half 
years. 

Like Vimy Ridge, forty miles to the south, the 
possession of this hill had meant much to the Ger- 
mans. Vimy had been taken two months before, 
and now this position, too, was doomed. Patiently 
digging beneath the enemy trenches, the Australian 
and British sappers had been burrowing under the 
ridge for more than a year. Nineteen powerful 
mines, holding five hundred tons of a new giant ex- 
plosive, had been placed beneath the unsuspecting 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 223 

Germans. At three o'clock in the morning (June 7) 
a British engineer pressed a button that brought the 
ends of the two electric wires together, which set off 
the explosive. 

With a roar that reached the listening ears of 
Prime Minister Lloyd-George, 140 miles away, the 
whole top of the famous ridge blew into the air, 
carrying with it guns, big and little, and fragments 
of its unlucky German garrison. A terrific rain of 
metal from the big British guns followed this up- 
heaval. The German trenches which had survived 
the explosion were practically wiped out by this 
deadly storm. The guns ceased, and with wild cheers 
the Second British Army, led by its great general, 
Sir Herbert Plumer, dashed forward, and in a short 
three hours was master of the hill. Irish, English, 
and Australians took part in this memorable fight. 
From the summit of the hill the Germans had been 
able to observe all the preparations for the attack. 
Knowing that it was coming they had massed some 
of their best divisions to meet it. The only surprise 
to them was the explosion of the mines, and the 
terrific intensity of the British gun fire. For two 
years the Allies had fought with bayonets and rifles 
against the big guns of the Germans. Now the 
tide had turned. The munition factories of France 
and England were turning out monster cannon and 
great supplies of shells faster than Germany could 
make them, and the enemy was at last getting a 
taste of his own medicine. 



224 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Still the picked troops of the Germans fought 
gamely and well. Over the hill and to the east of it 
rushed the victorious British. Out from the woods 
beyond, a fresh division of the enemy came forward 
to meet them. A fierce and bloody hand-to-hand 
conflict followed which was won by the British. The 
day closed with the whole ridge in their hands. 
A tract of land five miles long and three wide had 
been taken ; but thirty thousand Germans had 
fallen as against only one third that number of the 
victors. Another terrific blow had been struck 
at the morale of the enemy. He was fast learning 
that the "contemptible little army " was outfighting 
and out gunning his best divisions. 

Let us turn for a short time to a scene of the war 
that we have not visited recently. The Italians 
were not satisfied with the capture of Gorizia. 
Their tireless engineers were constantly plotting and 
planning new ways to break through the Austrian 
defenses. The upper Isonzo River was a hard 
barrier to cross. It flows for a great part of its 
length between steep banks, and could easily be 
defended. Working at night, however, the Italians 
accomplished a wonderful feat. By digging a canal 
they were able to divert the greater part of the water 
into a new channel, reducing the depth of the river 
from twenty feet to three or four. In the shallow 
water, they built, always under cover of darkness, 
numerous bridges across the channel. Just before 
daybreak each morning, the canal was closed up and 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 22$ 

the water flowed back in its old channel, covering 
the new bridges six feet deep. 

When, on August 18, all was ready for the grand 
assault, the water was once more turned from its 
natural bed, and four pontoon bridges were laid across 
the shallow stream in addition to the many cross- 
ings that had lain concealed beneath the water. 
Strong searchlights were turned upon the opposite 
Austrian batteries which blinded the gunners to 
what was going on below them. With wonderful 
dash, the Italians flung themselves across the stream 
in irresistible numbers, and before the astonished 
Austrians could realize what had happened they 
were made prisoners by the thousands. 

Just beyond the Isonzo lie two plateaus, largely 
surrounded by mountains. The northerly table- 
land is called the Bainsizza (bin sit'sa) , the southerly 
the Carso. The attack of the Italians in the north 
carried them six miles east of the river along the 
Bainsizza plateau, while a similar assault to the south 
took them even deeper into the Carso. 

Over 35,000 prisoners were taken in the drive and 
it is estimated that Austria must have lost one 
hundred thousand men in killed and wounded. 
Reinforcements were rushed up from Vienna, and 
the progress of the Italians was checked consider- 
ably. Nevertheless, they continued to gain, bit by 
bit, until the third week in October. 

By this time two more nations had entered the war. 

For over two hundred years there had t&gn ,a 



226 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

treaty between Portugal and England that bound 
each nation to come to the aid of the other when 
sorely beset. In the days of the first Napoleon, 
British troops had saved the little peninsular nation 
from being conquered by the French. 

Roused by German attacks on her merchant 
ships, Portugal had retaliated by seizing all German 
vessels that had taken refuge in her harbors. Ger- 
many promptly declared war, whereupon Great 
Britain called upon her ancient ally, under the terms 
of the treaty, to furnish 10,000 troops for service 
in France. In due time these came, and were joined 
to the British army. 

The other nation was Greece. The King, by 
dismissing Venizelos, in defiance of the will of a ma- 
jority of his people as expressed in two elections, was 
ruling like a despot. Finally there appeared a call 
to the Greek people, signed by Venizelos, by the chief 
admiral of the navy, and by one of the generals in the 
army. This proclamation stated that the king, by 
setting aside the constitution and rejecting the leaders 
voted into power by the people, had forfeited his 
right to the throne. It pointed out that he was be- 
traying Greece into the hands of her enemies, the 
Turks and Bulgars, in order to oblige his German 
brother-in-law, the Kaiser. It told the people that 
their true friends were the democratic nations of the 
world, like France and Great Britain. 

At Salonica, Venizelos and his friends set up a 
republic of Greece, under the protection of the army 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 



227 



of the Entente. The entire northern half of Greece 
and the people of the islands joined the new govern- 
ment, which promptly declared war against Turkey, 
Bulgaria, Austria- Hungary, and Germany, and sent 
its troops to fight on the northern battle line. 

Meanwhile, at Athens, King Constantine kept up 
his pro- German plottings. When General Sarrail, in 
the fall of 191 6, planned a great attack in order to 
keep the Bulgarians from joining in the assault on 
Roumania, the spies of King Constantine at Salonica 
betrayed his preparations to the enemy. By attack- 
ing first, they upset his plans and spoiled the main 
effect of his blow. At last the nations of the Entente 
could stand it no longer. In June, 191 7, they notified 
the Greek government that they had put up with 
Constantine just as long as they could. 

Const an tine's second son, Alexander, was offered 
the throne. With the guns of French and British war- 
ships bearing on his capital, Constantine decided 
that perhaps he would do well to join the growing 
body of ex-kings. A British warship carried him 
off, and he went to live in Switzerland. 

Alexander took the throne and invited Venizelos 
to come back to Athens as prime minister. The 
latter accepted, and his entry into the capital was 
the occasion for a wonderful welcome from the 
people. Greece, once more united, entered the war 
on the side of the Entente. 

Meanwhile, the Russian republic was having trouble. 
You have been told how Alexander Kerensky 



228 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

had become the prime minister. Kerensky was prone 
to compromise. He had not the strength of 
character to deal with the Russians. They were 
like a lot of children who had been used to strict 
orders and iron discipline in the past and now 
were let loose to do as they pleased. They de- 
manded that there should no longer be any putting 
to death for crime or military desertion, and Kerensky 
weakly agreed to this. Germany and Austria, who 
had felt, during the winter, that the coming year 
would see their downfall, unless the submarine 
campaign could starve out England, now took heart 
again. The most autocratic and despotic govern- 
ments in Europe themselves, they began to disarm 
the suspicions of the Russians by talking about the 
"brotherhood of men," telling them that it was the 
Tzar's government that made them fight against 
their brothers, the Germans. "Let us have peace," 
said the German spies, mingling with the childlike 
Russians. "Let each side bear its own losses. Let 
there be no annexations and no indemnities." 

German soldiers, acting under orders, grew 
friendly with the Russians in the opposite trenches 
and told them that the war ought to stop, as the 
Tzar, the chief cause of the trouble, was no longer 
ruler of Russia. 

All this plotting, combined with the new free- 
dom and loss of discipline, had so taken the fight out 
of the Russian army that the Germans had been 
able to leave only regiments of older men along the 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 229 

eastern front. Their best troops were rushed west- 
ward to take part in the furious assault that Hinden- 
burg was making on the French along the Chemin 
des Dames. Here for several weeks there raged 
a battle that, for violence of attack and stubbornness 
of defense, was surpassed only by the siege of Verdun. 
At last Kerensky, awake to the peril of a German 
conquest of his country brought about by under- 
mining the discipline of the Russian army, went to 
the front himself. He made numerous speeches to 
the troops and inspired them to attack. During the 
first half of the month of July, 191 7, led by Kerensky 
himself, the Russian armies in Galicia and Volhynia 
(the Russian province adjoining Galicia) attacked 
along a hundred mile front, driving back the Ger- 
mans and Austrians and capturing thousands of 
prisoners. Great joy filled the Allied nations, for 
they had feared that Russia had lost her will to 
fight. It proved only a "flash in the pan," how- 
ever, a last effort of the splendid fighting soldiers 
of Russia. Reenforcements began to arrive for 
the Austrians and Germans, and the Russian drive 
slowed down to a crawl and then halted. 



For three years the Germans had been breaking 
all rules of honorable nations by their barbarous 
bombing of French and British cities. Airplanes 
and Zeppelins had sailed across the North Sea and 
had dropped death among the crowded streets of 



230 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

London, murdering women and children in a vain 
attempt to break down the courage of the English 
people and to force them to make peace. For all 
these years a number of people in Great Britain had 
urged that the only way to stop these barbarous 
attacks was to pay back the Germans in their own 
coin — to send French and British aviators to bomb 
German cities. People in the Allied countries felt 
so much horror at the methods of the Germans 
that for a long time they would not permit reprisals 
of this sort. A French aviator flew over Berlin and 
the famous Italian poet, D'Annunzio, flew over 
Vienna ; but in each case nothing was dropped except 
printed handbills, telling the people that the Allies 
would not make war on women and children. 

In the summer of 191 7, however, the Germans had 
become so brutal in their bombing of field hospitals, 
all of which were marked plainly on the roof with 
the Red Cross, that Great Britain and France sent 
notice to Germany that if there were any more of 
such offenses they would send airplanes to bomb Ger- 
man cities. 

The Germans kept on, and so, at last, in June, 191 7, 
the Allies began raids on German towns. The air- 
men were instructed to bomb only railway tracks and 
stations, arsenals and munition factories. Neverthe- 
less, it was a beginning of reprisals, and it threw a 
chill of fear into the towns all up and down the Rhine. 

Inhabitants of western Germany set up a loud cry 
about the " barbarity" of the English and French, 



THE ISSUE PLAIN 231 

forgetting that for three years they had read with 
joy of the deadly air-raids on London. 

It will be recalled that in two brilliant attacks 
Generals Nivelle and Mangin had won back at 
Verdun all the ground that the Germans had gained 
at the price of four months of terrific assaults. Since 
December, 1916, there had been comparative quiet 
around the old French fortress. The Germans still 
held the ground that they had gained in the first 
six days of their attack. 

On the 20th of August, 191 7, after a bombardment 
of three days, the French at Verdun leaped out of 
their trenches, and dashed forward on both banks 
of the Meuse to a depth of over a mile. On the 
next day another brilliant stroke took them forward 
again and added 5000 prisoners to the 4000 taken 
on the first day. 

Four times within the next two weeks the sons of 
France struck out again. At the end of the operation 
twenty thousand prisoners had been taken, and the 
lines around Verdun were back again where they 
had been on February 21, 191 6, when Falkenhayn 
and the Crown Prince struck the terrific blow that 
was to have ended the war. 

The "poilu," as they nicknamed the common 
soldier in France, had always been known for his 
brilliant dash in attack, and for his quick thinking in 
an emergency. Military critics of other countries, 
however, had had doubts about his ability to ' ' stand 



232 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the gaff" of a long, hard, punishing defense, with 
the odds against him, and no relief in sight. These 
doubts, however, were set forever at rest by the 
magnificent conduct of the whole French army 
throughout the World War, but especially by the 
gallant defense of Verdun, a name never to be for- 
gotten in the history of France. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

i. Was it right for the United States to sell munitions to France 
and Great Britain? 

2. Why did President Wilson, in December, 1916, ask the warring 
nations to state the terms on which they would consider peace? 

3. How was Germany breaking rules of war recognized by 
civilized nations ? 

4. Why had Germany put off, for a time, her submarine campaign ? 

5. What were the reasons for the Russian Revolution? 

6. What were the great mistakes made by the early leaders of 
the Russian republic? 

7. Was the "strategic retreat " truly a good move for the Germans ? 

8. How did the fall of Bagdad harm the German cause? 

9. What was the effect of the Zimmermann note on Americans of 
German blood? 

10. How did the United States prepare to take part in the war? 

1 1 . Why did Nivelle's great attack fail ? 

12. Why was it that the British were able to gain ground in 1917? 

13. How did the Italians arrange to cross the Isonzo ? 

14. Why did Portugal and Greece enter the war? 

15. Were the Allies right in dealing with the Greek king as they did ? 

16. How was the fighting spirit of the Russian army being broken 
down? 

17. Were the British and French justified in paying back the 
Germans in their own coin (air raids) ? 

18. What qualities did the French soldier show which people in 
general did not know that he had? 



CHAPTER IX 
Dark Days 

The submarine at its worst. — Russia on the decline. — Korniloff 
loses. — Lansing's disclosures : " spurlos vorsenkt " ; the decora- 
tion for the Swedish minister. — Undermining the spirit of the 
Italian army. — The disaster of Caporetto. — Stopped at last. — 
The Bolsheviki in control of Russia. — A new nation is born. 
— Russia drops out of the fight. — Mud in Flanders. — 
New cabinets rise to bear the burden. — Byng at Cambrai and 
the German rebound. — The United States at war with Aus- 
tria. — Slow progress in Palestine. — Wilson and Lloyd-George 
state their terms of peace. — The Tuscania goes down. 

When in February, 191 7, Germany sent out her 
submarines to sink merchant vessels without warn- 
ing, she practically declared war on the whole world. 
Norwegian, Danish, Dutch, Spanish, and other 
neutral vessels were sent to the bottom along with 
those of the warring nations. Spain was kept from 
entering the conflict by the plottings of her pro- 
German nobles and by the liberal spending of 
German money to bribe her newspaper writers and 
editors. 

Denmark, Holland, and Norway were intensely 
indignant when their citizens were murdered in cold 
blood on the high seas, but with the fate of Belgium 
and Serbia staring them in the face they did not dare 
to declare war. Brazil, Cuba, and three or four 

233 



234 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

other South and Central American nations broke 
off all dealings with Germany, and some of them 
finally declared war. 

As time went on the Germans became more and 
more merciless in their methods. At first they simply 
shot a torpedo or two into a ship and left her to sink. 
Later they amused themselves by rising to the 
surface and firing shells at the lifeboats of a sinking 
steamer, or at the helpless victims as they struggled in 
the water. But it remained for one German captain 
to put the finishing touch of savagery to his sink- 
ing of a steamer called the Belgian Prince. 

He invited the crew to seek safety on the deck 
of the submarine. They did so ; whereupon he 
sailed along for a short distance, then submerged, 
leaving the unfortunate men who had trusted him 
to drown or to swim as best they might. Only two 
of them were rescued and that by a remarkable 
chance. Otherwise the story of this deed might 
have gone untold, like that of many similar oc- 
currences. 

Men and women, cast adrift in open boats without 
food or even water, died by the hundred from 
hunger, thirst, or exposure. 

British, French, and American destroyers, swift 
vessels of small draft (so light that there was little 
of the boat below water to furnish a target for a 
torpedo) scoured the seas, seeking the " U-boats" and 
rescuing their victims. Great hydroplanes flew over 
the sea, for it was discovered that from a position 



DARK DAYS 235 

high in the air one could often look down into the 
depths and see the lurking submarines, which were 
invisible to boats on the surface. 

A French scientist invented a listening device 
which gave warning of the nearness of a submarine 
through the hum of its motor as carried by the 
water. The English devised great nets which in- 
snared them, or warned the destroyers of their 
presence by pulling under water wooden floats just 
like the floats of an ordinary fishing tackle. Admiral 
Madden of the British navy suggested the depth 
bomb, afterwards perfected by an American. It was 
an arrangement shaped like an ash- can which sank 
to a certain depth and then exploded with a force 
that would blow in the sides of any submarine 
within a hundred yards. In spite of all these 
efforts the sinkings went on, twenty ships a week, 
twenty-five a week, thirty a week. 

The size of a ship is measured by the weight of the 
cargo that she will carry. A large ship will carry 
from 10,000 to 20,000 tons. The first six months 
of the "unrestricted" submarine campaign contained 
some dark days for the Allies. The Germans were 
sinking ships at the rate of more than half a million 
tons a month. In fact in one month eight hundred 
thousand tons went down. British and American 
shipyards worked night and day, turning out new 
ships, but for a long time the supply could not 
keep pace with the destruction. And nothing 
could replace the food and supplies that were lost, 



236 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

nor the brave sailors that were daily giving up their 
lives in the cause of humanity. 

It will be recalled that the Russians, led by 
Kerensky, the leader of the second revolutionary 
government, had begun a vigorous attack in July that 
flung the Austrians and Germans back along a hun- 
dred-mile front and threatened to retake Lemberg. 

When the Germans found that the fighting spirit 
of the Russians was still high they brought up some 
of their best troops and struck back. The system of 
supplying the Russian army with food and ammuni- 
tion was bad enough under the Tzar's government, 
as you have already learned. It was worse under 
the new government, for many of the old officers, 
who really knew how to do things, had been removed, 
and the discipline of the whole organization had gone 
to pieces. 

The Germans, through spies and pretended de- 
serters, spread among the gullible Russian soldiers 
the story that the new government was dividing 
free land among all men who were at home in their 
own little villages or counties. "Go home and get 
your share," said these spies, and the ignorant 
Russians rushed home in droves, only to find that 
they had been gulled. 

As a result of all this intrigue and the teaching of the 
Lenin-Trotzky party that this was a capitalist 
war, the great Russian war machine cracked and 
fell apart. All the ground that had recently been 
gained was quickly lost ; on a front of one hundred 



DARK DAYS 237 

and fifty miles, the Russians fell back. They re- 
treated almost to the eastern borders of Galicia. 
The only thing that prevented the retreat from 
becoming a disastrous rout was the inability of 
the Germans and Austrians to pursue as rapidly 
as the Russians retreated. In a few places some 
strong generals, like Alexieff or Korniloff (kor ni'loff), 
kept up the old discipline, but as a whole, the Rus- 
sian army was out of the war for good. 

Korniloff, a fighting Cossack, disgusted with the 
weakness and lax discipline allowed by the Kerensky 
government, at last started to march on to Petrograd, 
meaning to restore order and insist on strict military 
rule. But the spirit of revolt and poor discipline 
had secured the upper hand. His troops deserted 
him ; he was arrested by Kerensky' s order, and the 
last spark of fighting spirit among the southern 
armies flickered out. Russia, as a member of the 
Entente, was no more a partner in the war. 

About this time the State Department at Washing- 
ton struck a few blows at secret diplomacy by publish- 
ing several messages from German ministers in the 
New World which had been caught and translated, 
although written in a complicated secret cipher. 
Three of these were messages from Count von 
Luxburg, German Minister to Argentina, which, it 
was proved, had been sent to Stockholm by the 
Swedish Minister at Buenos Aires to be sent on to 
Berlin. 

In one of these notes Von Luxburg called the 



238 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Foreign Minister of Argentina "a notorious ass 
and Anglophile" (friend of England). In the other 
two he told the Berlin office that Argentina was getting 
angry about the sinking of her ships by German 
submarines, and recommended that in future, if they 
were sunk, they be "sunk without leaving any trace " 
(" spurlos versenkt"). This meant, of course, that, 
not content with sinking the ships the submarines 
should also murder every man in the crews, so that 
no witness could be left to testify against them. 

This cold-blooded scheme, so true to the Junker 
nature, did not appeal to the people of Argentina. 
Mobs gathered in the cities, and German clubs and 
German newspaper offices were stoned and wrecked. 
The government at Buenos Aires handed Herr von 
Luxburg his passports, and told him to get out of the 
country in a hurry. 

The people of Sweden were far from happy at 
learning that their minister was secretly and un- 
fairly helping the Germans to transmit their private 
messages, and the cabinet at Stockholm had a stormy 
time for a while. 

The Swedish government had just given out a 
statement that their minister to Argentina thought 
it was only proper for him to send on the German 
messages but that nothing of the sort would happen 
again, when Mr. Lansing (our Secretary of State) 
gave out another message that had been caught 
in passing. This was from Von Eckhardt, German 
Minister to Mexico, addressed to the government 



DARK DAYS 239 

at Berlin. It told of the great help that had been 
given by Herr Cronholm, Swedish Minister to 
Mexico, in getting ■" information from the hostile 
camp." Herr von Eckhardt urged his government 
to give Mr. Cronholm a decoration (a star or medal 
of the Crown Order) to reward him. 

This method of dealing with dishonesty and secret 
diplomacy was new to the world. In Europe, 
governments which had discovered something dis- 
creditable about other governments sometimes used 
this knowledge for purposes of blackmail. Not so 
the United States. Our State Department gave 
out the whole truth at once, trusting public opinion 
to force right to prevail. 

We left the Italian army slowly fighting its way 
eastward and southward on the plateaus of Bain- 
sizza and the Carso. ' The bulk of the fighting forces 
were on the eastern front. To the northeast, among 
the mountains, the lines were held by regiments 
made up of the older men. There had been very 
little fighting in this section for some time. In fact 
the troops had gotten into the habit of fraternizing 
with the soldiers in the opposite Austrian trenches. 

The German generals, who were really in command 
of the Austrian armies, formed a cunning plan 
to take advantage of this friendliness. Cer- 
tain picked soldiers were carefully taught to 
go among the Italian troops and fill their heads 
with lying stories that would make them anxious 
to return to their homes. These men informed 



24C HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the Italians that now the British and French had 
gotten the Italian men out of the way, they were 
looting and plundering the helpless coast of Italy. 

To prove this, the Germans distributed many 
thousands of copies of a Roman newspaper, which 
told how the French and British were shooting women 
and children in Rome and laying waste the whole 
city. Of course the whole thing was a fake, but the 
more ignorant of the Italians swallowed it, "bait, 
hook, and sinker." 

These trained German and Austrian spies went 
among the Italians at this northeastern corner of 
the battle lines, telling them that it was a shame for 
brave men to be killing each other just because of 
the quarrels of a crowd of kings. They proposed 
that when the next general attack should be ordered 
all the soldiers along this line, Austrians and Italians 
alike, should throw down their arms and rush for- 
ward to embrace their enemies, and thus end the 
war. Again many credulous Italians were tricked 
and agreed to this proposal. 

On the 24th of October the Austrians, after an 
intense bombardment of three days, launched 
a severe attack on the Italian lines near Caporetto, 
in the sector where all this work had been going on 
to undermine the fighting spirit of the troops. It 
had been the usual custom to hold up the in- 
fantry attacks until after the artillery had ceased 
firing, but on this occasion the German gunners left 
a small gap of a quarter of a mile where no shells 



DARK DAYS 241 

were to fall for a few minutes, all the while keeping 
up a furious firing on the rest of the lines, in order 
to hold the Italians down in their trenches. 

Through this narrow space poured a picked 
division of German troops. At their head was 
a chosen company of Austrians who spoke Italian. 
These men were dressed in Italian uniforms. They 
scattered among the Italian troops just behind the 
first line trenches, crying out, "All is lost. Let us 
flee to our homes ! " 

In the meanwhile the artillery ceased firing, and, 
true to their pledge, most of the Italians in the front 
line trenches threw down their arms and rushed 
forward to embrace their on-coming Austrian 
brothers. But the "brothers" had not thrown 
down their arms ; and they paid no attention to the 
unarmed Italians. These were allowed to pass 
through to the rear, where they were quickly herded 
off to prison camps. The pretended panic of the 
Austrians in Italian clothes and the rapid advance 
of the Germans behind them, started a real panic 
among the Italians of the reserve troops. These 
men, already burning with eagerness to defend their 
children against the French and English, were ready 
on any pretext to start home at once ! They ran ; 
and in their wake came the invaders. The line was 
broken, and through the gap, in an ever increasing 
flood, poured the best troops of the Austrian 
army, with four crack German divisions from the 
Russian front. 



242 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Almost the entire Second Army of Italy turned and 
fled. Here and there regiments resolved to stand 
to the death, like the gallant ^lpini (alpi'ni), as 
they were called, on Monte Nero. These devoted 
bands, by selling their lives as dearly as possible and 
resisting until the last man was shot down, saved 
the retreat from being turned into a disgraceful rout. 

The Austrians had other men dressed in Italian 
uniforms, who mingled with the retreating army 
until they came to some commanding point, where- 
upon they opened fire with machine guns, mowing 
down the weaponless Italians around them. 

Meanwhile the Third Army, commanded by the 
Duke of Aosta, holding the line of the lower Bainsizza 
and Carso plateaus, was giving a good account of 
itself. When the news came of the break in the lines 
of the Second Army, the Third went forward in a 
sweeping charge that drove the Austrians back out 
of their trenches. Then, learning that the advance 
of the Germans was threatening to cut them off from 
Italy, Aosta's men slowly began their retreat, taking 
their guns with them. At regular intervals they 
turned and gave a stinging reminder to the pursu- 
ing Austrians that they must not approach too near. 
By November 4 they had reached the line of the 
Tagliamento (tal ya men'to) River, forty miles to the 
rear, where an attempt was made to stop the retreat. 

The Germans and Austrians, however, were stream- 
ing over the mountains from the north in such num- 

^Alpini : a special corps of mountaineers. 



DARK DAYS 243, 

bers that they threatened to take the Tagliamento 
line in the rear. On November 6, the Taglia- 
mento was left behind. On the tenth, the Third 
Army reached the line of the River Piave (pya'va), 
which empties into the sea about seventeen miles east 
of Venice. Here they stood, destroyed all bridges, 
and defied all attempts of the Austrians to cross, 
except at one point, where they managed to gain a 
small portion of the southwest bank. The great 
drive was over. The Austro- Germans had bagged 
twenty-three hundred guns and nearly a quarter of a 
million prisoners, largely from the ranks of the 
Second Army. 

For the next few weeks the Germans and Austrians 
made desperate attempts to break through the new 
line. But help had arrived. Several French di- 
visions j the pick of the army, commanded by General 
Foch, France's greatest strategist, and a small 
British army under Sir Herbert Plumer, Haig's most 
able general, had arrived on the scene. 

The danger point was at the eastern end of the 
line near the sea coast. But Italian engineers cut 
the dikes that held in the delta of the Piave and let 
the waters overflow all this land, to a width of several 
miles. The waters were soon swarming with Italian 
gunboats. Cannon were mounted on floats, on 
rafts, on ships of all description. Every attempt 
of the Austrians to follow up their advantage was 
beaten back. 

The Italians had learned the truth now. They 



244 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

had been beaten, not by fighting but by lies and 
trickery. They were angry with themselves for hav- 
ing been so gullible, but they were furious at the 
Germans and Austrians for having deceived them. 
The Battle of the Venetian Plain was the greatest 
victory of the war so far, both in amount of ground 
gained and guns and prisoners taken. But it was in- 
tended to crush Italy entirely, to put her out of the 
fight and to force her to make a separate peace. In 
this it failed utterly. Instead of discouraging the 
Italian people, it put them on their mettle. The dis- 
graceful rout of the Second Army was atoned for by 
the splendid fighting retreat of the Third, and the slow, 
orderly retirement of the First and Fourth armies 
from the mountains to the north and northwest. 
The gallant Alpini on Mount Nero had not given 
their lives in vain. The news of their death' proved 
an inspiration to the whole of Italy. Instead of 
suing for peace, the Italian nation, its courage high, 
was burning for a chance to avenge the disgrace of 
this defeat. 

But it had been a narrow escape. If the line of 
the Piave had been broken, if the troops had given 
way at the point where the river approaches the 
Asiago (a sya'go) plateau, it might, indeed, have re- 
sulted in putting Italy, like Russia and Roumania, 
into the class of the down and out. 

For Russia had fallen into evil days. A party of 
extreme Socialists called the Bolsheviki (which 
means "the majority") had tried in July, by street 



DARK DAYS 245 

fighting in Petrograd, to overthrow the Kerensky 
government. They were put down at the time, but 
went on gaining strength for the next attempt, 
secretly undermining the support of Kerensky among 
the soldiers. Their leaders were plentifully supplied 
with German gold which they used to buy and bribe 
those who could not be persuaded to join them. 

In the first week of November, having won over 
the sailors on the warships, the Bolsheviki made an- 
other attempt. A cruiser was brought up the River 
Neva so far that its guns commanded the buildings 
where the Kerensky government had its offices. 
Then Bolshevist troops surrounded the Winter 
Palace, and Kerensky, seeing that he was deserted, 
slipped out of a back door, disguised as a servant, and 
fled up the Neva in a boat. 

The next day found Lenin and Trotzky in com- 
plete control at Petrograd. In Moscow, after rioting 
in which 3000 people were killed, the Bolsheviki 
also triumphed. 

A condition of lawlessness followed throughout 
Russia. The great empire of the Tzars, built up 
through hundreds of years of aggression and con- 
quest, fell apart overnight. 

The Siberians refused to submit to the Trotzky 
crowd and set up a separate republic. The Cossacks 
of the Don, led by their fighting hetman (as the 
chief of these tribes is called), General Kaledines, 
did the same. Finland soon announced to the world 
that it should have a government of its own, inde- 



246 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

pendent of Russia. Then, to the great astonishment 
of Europe, the Ruthenians, or Little Russians, called 
an assembly of their own and set up a new republic 
called the Ukraine or Ukrainia. 

Their country is the rich, wheat-growing, black- 
earth belt stretching across the southern part of 
Russia from the Austrian border to the Black Sea 
and the Don River. Thirty million Ruthenians 
had been prohibited by the Tzar's government from 
using in schools, courts, and churches their own 
language, which differs from Russian as much as 
"Plattdeutsch" (plat doitsh) or Low German does 
from the High German of Bavaria and Saxony. There 
were three million Ruthenians in eastern Galicia. 
These had really been given more liberty by the 
Austrian government than had their brothers across 
the border by the officials of the Tzar. Here was 
a new nation suddenly sprung into existence. 

The most southwesterly state of Russia, Bes- 
sarabia, is inhabited largely by Roumanians. These 
people now took advantage of the break-up to declare 
that their land should henceforth be joined to the 
mother country. 

All through the great empire there was confusion, 
lawlessness, and disorder. Murders and plundering 
took place unchecked. Neither property nor life 
was safe. 

Meanwhile, Lenin and Trotzky announced that 
they were going to end the war. They sent a dele- 
gation under a white flag into the German lines to 



DARK DAYS 247 

ask for an armistice (an agreement to stop fighting 
while peace terms are being considered). 

The first agreement was finally signed between the 
Russians on the one side and the Germans, Austro- 
Hungarians, Bulgarians, and Turks on the other. 
It called for a truce for four weeks, from December 
17, 1917, to January 14, 1918, during which time 
peace was to be discussed. 

This was a complete betrayal of France and Great 
Britain by their former ally. In only one way did 
the Bolsheviki show any interest in the nations which 
were fighting to end the rule of militarism in Europe. 
They stated in the agreement that Germany should 
not take advantage of the truce on the western front 
to send German troops across from Russia to France. 
Having signed this, the German government gave 
another proof to the world of its lack of honor by 
rapidly transferring to the western front some of the 
best troops left in Russia. It was another case of 
"a scrap of paper." 

There was need for reinforcements along the 
western front. The French had made a vigorous 
thrust north from the Chemin des Dames, capturing 
many prisoners and pushing the Germans off an 
important ridge. The British, beginning as early 
as September, had opened a big campaign to drive 
the Germans out of western Belgium. From this 
coast the submarines preyed on the commerce of 
the Allies. They could not use the port of Antwerp, 
for the River Scheldt passes through Dutch territory. 



248 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



The harbors of Zeebrugge (za broog'ga) and Ostend, 
however, were known to be their bases of supply. 
In fact, it was suspected that submarine vessels were 
carried in parts on railroad trains to the Belgian city 
of Bruges (bruzh), assembled (put together) here 



HOHBHBttHH^:^ 


A 


s 


.f\3 '-5 


; r^~I~k . 


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gL3|§ 


• -*■'*. Li-> VA 







Pill-box 



© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

with French Poilus 



A Captured German 

and launched in the canals leading to these seaports. 
The submarine campaign was hurting, — hurting 
worse than the Allies would admit, and the recap- 
ture of the coast towns would make it much harder 
for the U-boats to operate. 

The British had to advance their lines only twenty- 
five miles, but this small gain would be fought by 



DARK DAYS 249 

the whole power of the German army. The Ger- 
mans had hit upon a new way of defending the 
ground that proved very effective. They drew 
most of their men back from the front line trenches, 
leaving as outposts little " pill-boxes," as the 
English call them, — little round huts with walls 
and roof built out of solid concrete. 

These housed four or five men each, armed with 
machine guns which fired through small round 
holes in the sides of the box. As the English 
soldiers advanced they were caught by the cross 
fire from the machine guns in the pill-boxes and 
mowed down before they could get anywhere near 
the main German forces. The only thing that could 
damage a pill-box was a direct hit from a big gun, 
and that was very uncommon as the "boxes" were 
so small and the big guns so far away. 

Finally, the British parked their big guns almost 
wheel to wheel and sent a rain of steel ahead of the 
charging troops that left hardly a yard of ground 
untouched by shell-fire. The fire was so terrific that 
the machine-gunners in the pill-boxes could not 
stand it. The British broke through, but they 
met stout resistance and fought their way ahead 
by inches. -All through the two months beginning 
September 20 they had gone steadily ahead. 
Their greatest feat had been the capture of the 
ridge of Passchendaele (pa shen-da/le) . By Novem- 
ber 17, they had gained more than half the 
fourteen miles between Ypres and Roulers. But 



2^0 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



the fall rains had set in, and the country, plowed up 
for miles and miles by shell-holes, became a great 
slimy sea of mud. Just as the mud had slowed 
up and finally stopped the advance on the Somme 
in the fall of 191 6, so in 
the following year it was 
the greatest friend of the 
Germans in Belgium. 
British soldiers sank into 
shell holes and were swal- 
lowed up. Guns stuck 
fast and could not be 
moved. Roads were im- 
passable. Horses, unable 
to pull themselves out, had 
to be shot. 

A great depression 
settled over the British 
army. They had given their best ; they had fought 
their hardest. After two months they had gained 
seven miles ; and now the Russians had dropped out 
and the German armies from the eastern front were 
arriving. 

Meanwhile, there had been a political shake-up 
in more than one Allied nation. Ministers were 
changed and generals ousted. In Italy, General 
Cadorna resigned the chief command and was suc- 
ceeded by a much younger man, General Diaz 
(di'as). The cabinet resigned, and a new prime 
minister, Vittorio Orlando, was appointed. In 




General Diaz 



DARK DAYS 251 

France there had been several changes. Vivi- 
ani, Briand [brian(g)'], Ribot (ri bo'), and Pain- 
leve (pan'le va') had in turn served as prime minis- 
ter. Now, the Chamber of Deputies, feeling that 
the Painleve cabinet was not dealing firmly enough 
with pro-Germanism that had been uncovered among 
prominent men, refused to support it any longer. A 
strong man was needed — and he was found. Georges 
Clemenceau (cla'man so') , aged seventy-seven, the 
fighting "Tiger, " whose fearless attacks had so often 
caused the downfall of ambitious and self-seeking 
ministers, was now called to the leadership himself. 

This remarkable old man, forty-seven years before, 
had been the leader of the faction in the French 
Congress which refused to vote for the treaty of 
peace with Germany because it gave up Alsace and 
Lorraine. Clear-headed, tenacious, stubborn, coura- 
geous, he was himself the very embodiment of the 
spirit of the French nation. He chose for his cabinet 
men of his own type, not caring whether they were 
Socialists or Royalists (those who wished to have 
France ruled again by a king) , if only they were men 
of resolution and courage. These were dark days 
for the Allies, and courage among the men in high 
places was needed. 

An event which happened on the western front 
during the latter part of November brought joy for 
a short time, but this was quickly followed by 
depression. General Sir Julian Byng, commander 
of the Third British Army, succeeded in giving the 



25^ 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Germans a sharp surprise. He secretly brought 
up a great number of tanks and massed them 
along the Hindenburg Line about halfway between 
Bapaume and Cambrai. On the morning of No- 
vember 20, without the 
firing of a gun, these 
great gray monsters 
crawled forward toward 
one of the strongest parts 
of the German trench 
system. 

Barbed- wire defenses 
were pierced as though 
they were paper ; the tanks 
crashed through them, fell 
across the main trenches, 
and crawled up the op- 
posite side, spitting fire 
and death from every loop 
hole. The astonished 
Germans turned to flee, but, pouring through the 
gaps torn by the tanks, came the British infantry 
and behind them a sight that had not been seen 
for three years, cavalry in hot pursuit. On a 
front of thirty- two miles the British broke through, 
capturing more than nine thousand prisoners, and 
advancing five miles, to within three miles of Cam- 
brai. In the attack they lost fewer men in killed 
and wounded than the number of unwounded Ger- 
mans that they captured. 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Bvng 



DARK DAYS 253 

The German High Command was now thor- 
oughly alarmed. The loss of Cambrai, an 
important city of 32,000 inhabitants, the center 
of several railways and good wagon roads, would 
have been a severe blow. Reserves were hastily 
summoned, and Byng's men soon found further 
progress impossible until their big guns could once 
more advance to their support. 

The drooping spirits of the Allies were greatly 
cheered by the news of the smashing victory. It 
showed something new — this breaking of the sup- 
posedly unbreakable Hindenburg Line by tanks 
alone, without artillery help. But the echoes of the 
cheers over the victory had hardly died down when 
the Germans came back with a counter blow that 
was as sudden and unexpected as that of Byng. 
The British again underestimated the strength of 
the enemy. On the southern edge of the blunt 
three-sided dent that had been made in the Hinden- 
burg Line, the Germans struck in force. They found 
the lines before them almost stripped of men. Two 
miles further on they met some engineers and sappers 
— building roads — but very few fighting men. Some 
one had blundered — and the Germans were in a fair 
way to take in the rear the troops who held the line 
nearest to Cambrai. Then the British woke up, and 
fierce fighting followed, but in the end the Germans 
won back half of the ground that they had lost, and 
took almost as many prisoners as Byng had a week 
before. 



254 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Thus what promised to be a brilliant victory and 
a forerunner of other successes became instead 
a warning of what the Allies had to expect after the 
soldiers from the thousand-mile Russian front had 
been transferred to the west. For it was the arrival 
of fresh men from the eastern trenches that gave the 
advantage to the German side of the line. 

Two events that happened about this time cheered 
the drooping spirits of the Allies. The first was the 
declaration of war on Austria- Hungary by the 
United States. This action was especially help- 
ful to Italy at this time, for now American help, 
in money, food, and men could be sent to prop up 
the Mediterranean ally, whose nerves were greatly 
shaken by the disaster which began at Caporetto. 

Austria- Hungary, while not the nation to begin 
submarine sinkings without warning, had followed 
Germany's lead in the matter. American lives had 
been lost through the sinking of merchant ships in 
the Mediterranean Sea by Austrian submarines. The 
Austrian ambassador to the United States had been 
implicated in plots to blow up American factories 
that were making munitions of war, and with the 
forging of passports to get Austrian subjects in this 
country a safe passage through the lines of the En- 
tente. 

War was not declared on Turkey for two reasons. 
First, Turkey had not given any cause of offense 
to the United States other than her general alliance 
with Germany against the friends of the United 



DARK DAYS 



255 



States. In the second place, American property 
in Turkey, to the amount of $20,000,000, would have 
been promptly seized by the Ottoman government. 

There were certain people who urged that war be 
declared on Turkey and on Bulgaria too. Our 
government very wisely decided to remain friendly 
to Bulgaria. Bulgaria had 
no real interest in Ger- 
many's success. She had 
entered the war to win 
Macedonia from Serbia. 
She had Macedonia now 
and was only anxious for 
the war to end. There 
were many Bulgarians who 
owed their education to 
the American Robert Col- 
lege at Constantinople, and 
they had a very friendly 
feeling for this country. 
In fact, when the Germans 
ordered Bulgaria to send 
home the American minister and to break off all re- 
lations with the United States, the Bulgarian gov- 
ernment refused to do so. Mr. Murphy, the Ameri- 
can representative, stayed at Sofia, where he gave 
valuable aid to the Entente, and had great influence 
on the closing events of the war. 

The second event was the capture of Jerusalem, 
on December 10, by the English army of Sir 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Allenby 



256 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Edmund Allenby. With Sir Edmund were detach- 
ments of French and Italian troops, and he was aided 
by the Arabs from the Hedjaz country, who had 
thrown off the Turkish yoke, and were righting for 
their independence, but the main body of his troops 
were Englishmen and "Anzacs." 

After the unsuccessful attempt of the Turks to 
cut off the line of the Suez Canal during the first 
year of the war, the British had gradually worked 
their way eastward and northward, until, in De- 
cember, 191 7, their lines stretched from Jaffa on the 
Mediterranean to the Red Sea. 

Without attacking the Holy City, General Allenby 
put such pressure on the Turkish lines near the city 
that they had to retreat to the northward. On the 
tenth of the month, the commander-in-chief entered 
the historic city, afoot, accompanied by members 
of his staff and a few soldiers of each of the different 
nationalities that were fighting under his banner. 
The people, Jews, Armenians, Christians, and 
Mohammedans alike, welcomed the British troops 
as deliverers. Shouts of joy filled the air, and tears 
of emotion ran down the cheeks of more than one 
old Mohammedan when he learned that the rule of 
his hated co-religionists, the Turks, was ended. 

Still the capture of Jerusalem, important as it 
was for its moral value, meant only that the British 
expedition was making slow progress northward. 
A long, hard road lay before them, barred by Turk- 
ish forces that were still strong and which were 




David Lloyd-Georg 



258 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

due shortly to be reenforced, as the German High 
Command realized the danger of further advance 
on the part of the British. 

In the early days of 191 8, while Russia was making 
rapid progress toward a separate peace, which would 
apparently not only take her out of the ranks of the 
Entente, but actually make her almost an ally of 
Germany, the resolution of the people of France and 
the other Allied countries was strengthened by two 
great speeches. 

On the 5th of January, Mr. Lloyd- George, the 
British Prime Minister, told the Trade Union Con- 
ference what the Allies were fighting for. On the 8th 
of the same month President Wilson laid before the 
Congress of the United States his "program of 
the world's peace." 

The two speeches were very similar in their tone. 
Both breathed defiance to Germany and promised 
that no peace should be made until a just peace 
could be obtained. Wilson's ideas of what a just 
peace should be were summed up in fourteen different 
points. Lloyd- George did not number his points, 
but spoke in a similar manner. The terms of peace 
as- laid down by the two statesmen are given in 
parallel columns below : 

Wilson Lloyd-George 

1 . Open covenants of peace ; We can no longer let the 
no more private understand- future of European civilization 
ings between nations. be decided by a few arbitrary 

negotiators trying to secure 



DARK DAYS 



259 



2. The navigation of the 
.sea to be free to all, alike in 
peace and war, except where 
it is closed by international 
action. 



the interests of* this or that 
royal family or nation by 
trickery or persuasion. 



3. All trade barriers to be 
removed ; unfair agreements 
to be done away with. 



Conditions of trade and in- 
dustry at the end of the war 
will be very difficult. The 
countries which control raw 
materials will desire to help 
themselves and their friends 
first. 



4. Armies and navies to be 
made as small as possible for 
domestic safety. 



Modern armaments, com- 
pulsory military service and 
the vast waste of wealth and 
work spent in warlike prepara- 
tions are blots on civilization. 



5. Fair settlement of all 
colonial claims, considering 
the interests of their people as 
well as that of the European 
nation that has governed them. 



The fate of the German 
colonies to be decided by a 
council which must think first 
of the interests of the people 
living in them. 



6. The Germans to with- 
draw from all Russian terri- 
tory now held by them, and 
Russia to be given the oppor- 
tunity to decide upon her own 
government. 



The present rulers of Russia 
are engaged in separate nego- 
tiations with the enemy. 
Great Britain cannot be held 
accountable for decisions 
about which she has not been 
consulted. 



260 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



7. Belgium must be evacu- 
ated, restored, and left free 
from German interference. 



8. All French territory to be 
evacuated and restored. The 
great wrong done to France by 
Germany must be righted. 

9. The boundaries of Italy 
must be drawn along lines of 
nationality, so as to include 
districts clearly inhabited by 
Italians. 

10. The peoples of Austria- 
Hungary should be given the 
freest opportunity of govern- 
ing themselves. 

11. Roumania, Serbia, and 
Montenegro to be evacuated. 
Occupied parts to be restored 
and Serbia to be given an out- 
let to the sea. Balkan rela- 
tions to be settled along the 
lines of nationality. 



12. The purely Turkish 
parts of the present Ottoman 
empire to remain Turkish, 
but other peoples now under 
Turkish rule to be given self- 



The complete restoration of 
Belgium and such payment 
for damage as can be made. 
This is not an indemnity such 
as Germany collected from 
France in 187 1. 

The occupied part of France 
to be evacuated and restored. 
The great wrong of 187 1 must 
be reconsidered. 

The rightful claims of the 
Italians to be united to the 
people of their own tongue 
and race should be satisfied. 



Genuine self-government on 
democratic lines for those 
peoples of Austria-Hungary 
who have long desired it. 

The restoration of Serbia, 
Montenegro, and the occupied 
parts of Italy and Roumania 
with payment for damage 
done. Justice to men of Rou- 
manian blood and speech in 
their desire to join the mother 
country. 

The Turkish empire to be 
kept up in the homelands of 
the Turkish race with its capi- 
tal at Constantinople. Ara- 
bia, Armenia, Mesopotamia, 



DARK DAYS 



261 



government. The Dardanelles 
to be open to the free pas- 
sage of all nations. 



13. An independent Polish 
state to be set up, including all 
territory inhabited by unques- 
tioned Polish populations, and 
with an outlet to the sea. 

14. A League of Nations to 
guarantee independence and 
protection to all nations great 
and small alike. 



Syria, and Palestine to be 
recognized as separate na- 
tions. The Dardanelles and 
Bosphorus to be open to all 
nations and to belong to no 
particular nation. 

An independent Poland in- 
cluding all truly Polish dis- 
tricts that desire to join it. 



Some organization between 
nations to limit warlike prepa- 
ration and lessen the proba- 
bility of war. 

Equality of right among all 
nations, great and small. 



In France, Italy, and other Allied countries these 
speeches were hailed with delight. It was pro- 
claimed by the newspapers and by statesmen that 
Lloyd- George and Wilson had spoken for all the 
Allies. 

The Central Powers made no official answer to 
the terms proposed. Their attitude was clearly 
shown in a speech of the Kaiser made before the 
Second German Army in France. After compli- 
menting the soldiers on their repulse of the British 
attack, he said that if the enemy nations would not 
accept the German terms of peace then "we must 
bring peace to the world by battering in with iron 



262 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

fist and shining sword the doors of those who will 
not have peace." 

But the German people were getting uneasy. 
Their leaders had promised them that the sub- 
marine campaign would bring England to her knees 
within six months. Six months had passed, and 
yet another six months, and if England were on her 
knees it was not visible from Germany. As for the 
United States, they were told that even if we had 
troops to send (which we had not) they could not 
cross the Atlantic, for the German submarines 
would sink the ships which bore them and drown 
them in the deep. 

By February, 191 8, there were three hundred thou- 
sand young American soldiers in France, and they 
were coming at the rate of 50,000 a month. One 
troopship had been sunk on its return voyage, but it 
was nearly empty of men at the time. 

On the sixth of February the people of the United 
States were startled to hear that the troopship 
Tuscania, with 2100 men on board, had been 
sunk off the coast of Ireland by a German sub- 
marine. The men were largely from Wisconsin and 
Michigan, with some foresters recruited from the 
great northwest. Very few of them had ever seen 
salt water, or traveled on an ocean steamship. It 
would not have been surprising if the explosion of 
the torpedo and the sudden sideward lurch of the 
boat had thrown them into a panic. But when 
the story was told a thrill of pride went through the 



DARK DAYS 263 

entire country, for these gallant young landsmen 
showed no signs of fear. 

As the little British destroyers, skillfully handled, 
came near to take off as many men as they could 
hold, the finest discipline was in evidence. There 
was no panic, no rush. As the boat keeled over 
further and further, the men on the deck who were 
waiting their turn to be taken off struck up a mighty 
chorus of the popular song : ' ' Where Do We Go 
From Here, Boys?" Two hundred of them were 
going to their death in the icy waters of the North 
Atlantic, and they knew it. 

If the sound of that song reached the ears of the 
pirates, who, having done their work, were fleeing 
away in the dark, they must have known, as the 
gallant British seamen knew, that there was no doubt 
of the courage of the young Americans. They were 
to be reckoned with before this war was over, for 
they were game to the core. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why did not Spain, Holland, Denmark, and other European 
nations declare war on Germany for sinking their ships ? 

2. What were the chief aids in fighting submarines? 

3. Why did it seem for a while that the Germans would win the 
war? 

4. How did the Russian army cease to be a fighting force? 

5. What did Korniloff intend to do in case he won? 

6. What did Secretary Lansing's disclosures show? 

7. How did the Germans and Austrians demoralize the Italian 
Second Army? 

8. What saved Italy in November, 1917? 

9. How did the Bolsheviki overthrow Kerensky? 



264 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

10. Who were the people of the Ukraine? 

1 1 . Why were German reinforcements needed on the western front ? 

12. What new method of defense was used by the Germans? 

13. Why was the British attempt in Flanders unsuccessful? 

14. What was the reason for so many changes in generals and 
cabinets ? 

15. What made Byng's victory at Cambria astonishing? 

16. What turned it into disaster? 

17. Why did the United States declare war on Austria and not on 
Bulgaria and Turkey ? 

18. Why was the capture of Jerusalem important? 

19. How are Wilson's terms of peace different from those of Lloyd- 
George ? 

20. What was shown by the sinking of the Tuscania? 



CHAPTER X 
At Lowest Ebb 

Bolshevist proposals for peace. — Representative government in 
Russia lives one day. — Disbanding and ceasing to resist fail to 
win peace terms. — The Ukraine signs. — More " scraps of 
paper." — The final terms held out to Russia on the point of a 
bayonet. — The Germans' idea of a fair exchange of prisoners. 

— The wanderings of the Czecho- Slovaks. — The fate of Roumania. 

— Why the Central Powers had more men in March, 1918, than 
the Allies. — Ludendorff's plan for the final battle. — The great 
drive of March 21. — The failure of Sir Hugh Gough. — Carey and 
Fayolle stop the gaps. — Schrecklichkeit at long range. — Church 
and orphan asylum. — At last a Commander-in-Chief. 

We left the Russians, under their new leaders, 
Lenin and Trotzky, preparing to make peace with 
the Central Powers. 

Three days before Christmas (191 7) there met at 
Brest-Litovsk, a Russian city held by the Germans, a 
conference of delegates from the four Central nations 
and from Russia. After a speech by Herr von Kiihl- 
mann, the German Foreign Minister, in which he be- 
came very enthusiastic about the future friendship 
and trade between Russia and Germany, and in 
which he pointed out that this was the season of the 
year when everybody thought of peace on earth and 

good will to men, the Russians were invited to 

265 



266 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

present their terms. They did so, demanding a pro- 
gram which was truly fair and just. 

Let all German troops, said the Bolsheviki, with- 
draw from Russian * territory. Let Poland, Lithu- 
ania, and Latvia (the country of the Letts, north of 
Lithuania on the Baltic) govern themselves, free 
from domination by either Germany or Russia. 
Let the Turks give self-government to Armenia. 

Let Alsace and Lorraine take a vote on whether they 
shall remain German or once more be part of France. 

Let Belgium be restored through a fund raised 
by all the warring nations. 

Let Serbia, Montenegro, and Roumania be restored 
in the same way. Let Serbia have access to the sea. 
Let Bosnia have self-government. Let the Italian 
parts of Austria take a vote on whether they should 
go to Italy or not. 

Let the German colonies be given back. 

Let all straits and ocean canals be unfortified, so 
that the ships of all nations should be allowed to sail 
everywhere on the high seas, unharmed ; submarine 
warfare to be forbidden. 

Let there be no indemnities ; let all forced col- 
lections of money be given back. 

Let peace be settled by delegates from all nations. 

Let all nations gradually disarm on land and sea, 
replacing standing armies by militia. 

It can be imagined with what joy the Junkers re- 
ceived these terms. Nevertheless, to gain time, they 
pretended to be considering the Russian proposals, 



AT LOWEST EBB 267 

all the while keeping up their demoralizing of the 
Russian armies, and receiving from Russia the oil 
and wheat that they so badly needed. 

A few days later the conference met again, and 
the Central Powers presented a smooth reply to 
the Russians, in which they pointed out that while 
they agreed heartily with the proposals made, still 
because the British, French, Americans, and Italians 
had not agreed to them, it would be impossible to 
carry them out. In short, they avoided the whole 
Russian program, not even binding themselves to get 
their troops out of the Baltic Provinces (Lithuania, 
Livonia (Latvia), Courland, and Esthonia). 

At this reply the Bolsheviki came out of their 
dreams. They left Brest-Lit ovsk, denounced the 
Germans in their chief newspaper as "wolves in 
sheep's clothing" and pointed out that the Germans, 
while they were pretending peace and friendship, had 
forcibly carried off 300,000 people from Russian 
Poland and Lithuania to work as slaves in German 
fields and munition factories. They demanded that 
the peace conference move to some neutral city, like 
Stockholm ; and threatened to start the war again 
unless the Germans left the Baltic Provinces and 
Poland. 

These demands the Germans firmly refused. 
Meanwhile, the new Ukrainian republic, much more 
under German control than Great Russia, to the 
north, gave signs of agreeing to the German terms. 

The Bolsheviki finally came back to Brest- 



268 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Litovsk, but with a different delegation. Trotzky 
himself headed the group. After a heated dis- 
cussion, the Bolsheviki were told that they were 
" talking as if they had been victorious in the war 

and could dictate terms 
of peace." It was the 
German General Hoff- 
man who said this, 
and he went on to 
say that force was go- 
ing to settle this thing. 
The Germans settled 
things by force, just as 
the Bolsheviki had won 
the leadership in their 
nation by force and 

Leon Trotzky fc^ ft j n t ^ e same way < 

The Russians did not enjoy this language, but it 
was true, as was proved by something which hap- 
pened a few days afterward in Petrograd . The B olshe- 
viki announced that Russia was going to have a Con- 
stituent Assembly (a Congress or Parliament) elected 
by the people, to make laws for the nation. The as- 
sembly was duly elected and met for the first time on 
January 18. The very first thing that it did was to 
vote down — 237 to 146 — a resolution proposed by 
the Central Committee of the Bolshevist Workmen's 
and Soldiers' Delegates. The followers of Kerensky, 
together with the friends of Milioukoff, had a majority 
in the Assembly. Finding they could not control it, 




AT LOWEST EBB 269 

Lenin and Trotzky forcibly disbanded it. Real demo- 
cratic government in Russia lived one day ! The rule of 
the Bolsheviki now became as tyrannical as that of the 
Tzar had been. The lowest classes of society were in 
the saddle, byforce, just as Hoffman had pointed out. 

Finally, the Bolshevist ambassadors asked the 
Germans just what terms they proposed to give 
them. For answer General Hoffman turned to 
a map, and drawing a line from the shore of the Gulf 
of Finland near Petrograd through Pskoff, Minsk, 
and Brest-Litovsk, he stated that this should be 
the western boundary of Russia. 

"What about the boundary south of Brest- 
Litovsk?" asked Trotzky and the others. 

"That," answered the German, "is a question 
that need not worry you. We shall settle that with 
the delegates from Ukrainia." 

"What if we refuse these terms?" asked the 
Bolsheviki. 

"Within a week our troops will be in* Reval," 
replied Hoffman, naming a Russian city a short 
distance west of Petrograd. 

This was the answer, then. After talking honeyed 
words about peace and friendship for two months 
until the little discipline that remained in the 
Russian troops was gone, and the army was prac- 
tically disbanded, the Germans had at last dropped 
the mask and showed themselves to the simple- 
minded Russians in their true character, bent on 
forcible conquest and plunder. 



270 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Trotzky and his friends asked a short postpone- 
ment in order that they might go home for a few days 
and think it over. The result of their deliberations 
was that, on February 10, they announced to the world 
that they would never sign such a shameful treaty. 
At the same time they ordered their soldiers, remain- 
ing on all the fighting fronts, to disband and go home ! 
They trusted, they said, that their brother work- 
ingmen in Germany and Austria would not allow 
a new attack upon the helpless Russians. 

As a matter of fact there were strikes and riots 
among German and Austrian workingmen about 
this time. But they were put down with an iron 
hand. Troops were ordered to fire on the mobs 
and did so. Leaders were tried and imprisoned 
and the military chiefs showed the world that they 
were still rulers of Germany. 

Meanwhile, the Ukrainian republic had formally 
signed a treaty of peace with the Central Powers. 

After rnarking out the western boundary of the 
Ukraine, it went on to state that each side agreed 
to pay no indemnity, but to bear its own expenses 
for the war. Prisoners of war were to be given 
back, but above all trade must spring up. As the 
Ukraine had been the great wheat-growing district 
of Europe, the Germans eagerly looked forward to 
replenishing their depleted stores of food. 

Peace having been signed with a new nation of 
about 25,000,000 souls, the invasion of Great Russia 
was started. German troops marched, almost un- 



AT LOWEST EBB 271 

opposed, into Dvinsk, Pskoff, and other cities in 
the Baltic Provinces. 

They began plundering and looting on a large 
scale. As one American newspaper remarked, the 
Germans who came to Pskoff remained to prey. 
Pretending that the new Ukrainian republic needed 
German protection against the Bolsheviki, they also 
invaded the Ukrainian state of Volhynia and took 
the city of Lutsk. 

By February 22 so much of Russian territory had 
been invaded and plundered that the Bolshevik 
leaders became alarmed. Awakening from their 
dream of protection at the hands of their brother 
German workingmen, they began frantically to 
try to defend themselves against the on-coming 
hordes. Too late they repented the demobilization 
of their fighting forces. The Germans captured the 
troops that were sent against them with as much 
ease as if these had been unarmed schoolboys. 

Then the wild-eyed enthusiasts at Petrograd 
realized, for the first time, what can be done by 
a military group who have absolute discipline over 
a docile, subservient people. Telling the Russians 
that if they did not make peace the Germans would 
put back a Tzar upon the throne, Lenin announced 
that he would make peace "to save the revolution," 
and the Bolshevik Central Committee upheld him, 
by a vote of one hundred and twelve to eighty-four, 
although twenty-two refused to vote. 

But the Germans now refused to grant the armis- 



272 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

tice for which the Russians asked. Faced by 
necessity, the Petrograd Council really made some 
energetic preparations. Men were enlisted in what 
was known as the Red Guard, men who knew the 
danger and volunteered, patriotically, to go out 
to meet it. 

The Germans met some real resistance, and the 
plundering expedition ceased. Battles took place, 
in which the Germans, in some places, were forced 
to retreat. But the old regular army was 
thoroughly demoralized ; and when the Bolsheviki 
marched some of the regiments out to help the 
valiant Red Guard, they refused to fight and fled 
in a panic, looting as they went. 

Meanwhile, the Bolshevist envoys had gone back 
to Brest-Litovsk, to talk peace once more. On 
March 3, came the announcement that they had 
signed the peace treaty. The Germans promptly 
ceased their advance, which, in the two weeks' 
time, had brought them more than 60,000 prisoners, 
with thousands of guns and great quantities of muni- 
tions and supplies. They now held all of the 
Baltic Provinces and the western half of the Ukraine, 
including the city of Kief. The humiliating peace 
treaty was accepted two weeks later by the Bolshevik 
government, which, in the meantime, had removed 
the capital from Petrograd to Moscow. 

The terms of peace, as finally signed, forced 
Russia to give up one-quarter of the land which 
formerly was included in the European part of the 



AT LOWEST EBB 



273 



40° 30" 20" 10" o" 10" 20" 30" 40" 50° 60° 70° 80 




The Central Powers 

Conquests of the Central Power 1 
j§H|l||l Vassals of the Central Powers 
1 \ The Allies /^ 

\ j Conquests of the Allies 

I I Neutrals 

Heavy black lines indicate battle-fronts 



10 Q Longitude East 20° from Greenwich 30" 



Russian Losses through the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk 



274 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

empire, inhabited by one- third of the inhabitants 
of the whole empire, and including her richest 
agricultural regions and a great part of her wealth 
in minerals. 

She lost Finland, Esthonia, Courland, Livonia, 
Lithuania, Poland, and the Ukraine. Considering 
that Germany had begun talk of peace by agreeing 
completely with the Russian program of "no annex- 
ation and no indemnities," one can see how much 
faith could be put in the work of the Junker govern- 
ment. The final treaty also called for each party 
to bear its own war burden — pay its own war 
debts, etc. This proved a " scrap of paper" also, 
for the Germans, after peace had been signed, kept 
on advancing into Russian and Ukrainian territory, 
forcing contributions from cities that they passed, 
and hunting everywhere for wheat and other food 
supplies, which they took without so much as a 
"by your leave." They seized, among others, the 
port of Odessa, and marched inland to a spot only 
one hundred and fifty miles from Moscow. 

The treaty also stated that "prisoners of war of 
both sides will be sent home." You will notice 
that it did not state how many prisoners should be 
sent. When the time came for the exchange and the 
Russians brought back the three-quarters of a 
million of German and Austrian prisoners whom 
they held, the Germans accepted only the strong 
and able-bodied. The sick and the crippled were 
sent back, and the Russians were ordered to nurse 



AT LOWEST EBB 275 

them and feed them, until the Great War was over. 
On the other hand, the Russian prisoners in Germany 
who were sent back were the sickly and infirm'. 
The strong and healthy were to be kept and forced 
to work for Germany in fields and munition 
factories. 

That was the German idea of a fair exchange 
with a nation with whom peace had just been made. 
The million able-bodied Russian prisoners were 
to be kept as slaves, doing forced labor for Germany, 
while the two hundred thousand sick ones, who 
made just so many more helpless mouths for Ger- 
many to feed, were to be sent home to be fed by 
Russia. On the other hand Russia, while surrender- 
ing all the prisoners who now could be of use again 
to Germany and Austria as fighting men, was forced 
to keep on feeding and nursing such as were useless. 
One body of prisoners, however, refused to be 
returned to Austria. These were the Czechs and 
Slovaks, of whom you have heard before. They 
had no desire to be shot as deserters,* and so, keeping 
their arms and equipment, when the Bolsheviki 
made their peace with the Central Powers, they 
started across Asia on the Siberian Railway, intend- 
ing to take ship at Vladivostok for America. Finally 
they got back on the firing line, after completing 
the circuit of the earth. 

The treacherous Bolsheviki pretended to be their 
friends, but, acting under orders from Germany, 

*They had been fighting in the Russian Army. 



276 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

they first tried to disarm the Czecho-Slovaks and 
then fired upon them as they were taking a train 
for the East. The Czechs returned the fire and 
routed their false friends. Then for months they 
held the line of the Siberian railroad, which stretches 
for five thousand miles from Moscow to the shore 
of the Pacific. Thousands of them made their way 
back to Europe, where they were able to get into 
the final battles against their ancient oppressors, 
the Austrians, and against the Germans in 
France. 

Meanwhile, poor Roumania, deserted by Russia 
and cut off completely from any aid from her other 
allies, had to make the best bargain that she could. 
Unlike the Russians, her small army stood reso- 
lutely on the small part of their country not yet 
overrun and gallantly resolved to sell their lives 
as dearly as possible rather than surrender to the 
same kind of disgraceful bargain as the one made 
by Lenin. 

By the first treaty of peace, signed in the early 
part of March, Roumania gave up all her territory 
south of the Danube River. This was largely 
territory inhabited by Turks and Bulgars, and was 
called the Dobrudja. Austria demanded the chang- 
ing of the northwestern boundary line so as to give 
her control of the mountains and passes. 

No sooner was the treaty signed than the Central 
Powers began making fresh demands. They tried 
to compel the surrender of all war material. They 



AT LOWEST EBB 



277 



refused to let go their hold upon the Roumanian 
oil fields. In fact they demanded that all the wells 
be turned over to the control of a German company. 
The final treaty was signed during the first week 
of May, 191 8. The Roumanian delegates were 
treated with such insolence by the Germans and 
Austrians that General Lupesco, the Roumanian 
Chief of Staff, announced that if they were not 
received with more courtesy the Roumanians would 
leave the conference and defy their enemies to do 
their worst. 

The oil wells were turned over to Germany under a 
"lease " of ninety-nine years. All grain not actually 
needed for food by the Roumanians was to be sur- 
rendered to Germany. All statesmen, who, before 
Roumania's entry into the war, had been outspoken 
friends of France and England were compelled to 
resign from the cabinet. Meanwhile, with rage and 
bitterness in their hearts, the Roumanians, disarmed 
and despoiled, hoped and prayed for a victory of the 
Entente on the Western front, which should revenge 
them upon their foes. 

The Central Empires had stood between two sets 
of enemies. On the east they had faced Russia 
and Roumania, 127,000,000 people all told. On the 
west they faced Great Britain, France, and Italy, 
and the small remnant of Belgium that was not 
overrun, but which lay wholly within the range of 
the German guns. 

Let us consider the strength of the two groups of 



278 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

fighting nations with Russia and Roumania out of the 
struggle, and exclusive of the United States. 

On the one side the strength of the Central Powers 
was represented by : 

Germany 68,000,000 people 

Austria 52,000,000 people 

Bulgaria 7,000,000 people 

Turkey 20,000,000 people 

Total 147,000,000 people 

On the other the strength of the Allies was repre- 
sented by : 

Great Britain 45,000,000 people 

France 40,000,000 people 

Belgium 6,000,000 people 

Greece 4,000,000 people 

Serbia 4,000,000 people 

Portugal 5,000,000 people 

Italy . 33,000,000 people 

Montenegro 250,000 people 

Australia and New Zealand . . 5,000,000 people 

Canada 6,000,000 people 

Total 148,250,000 people 

On the face of these figures, the two groups seem 
about equal in strength. As an actual fact, the 
Central Powers and their allies had a great advan- 
tage over their opponents. The British, French, and 
their allies were able to keep in the field an army of 
some seven million men. Every man had been sent 
to the front who was not absolutely needed at home 
in factories that made the guns and munitions or 



AT LOWEST EBB 279 

for raising the food that the soldiers had to have. 
Ordinarily the Germans and their allies would have 
had an army about equal to that of their enemies. 
But we must remember that there were a million 
Russian prisoners working like slaves for the Ger- 
mans. These men took the places, in German 
farms and German factories, of Germans, who thus 
were able to be sent to swell the Kaiser's armies. 
Three hundred thousand Poles and Lithuanians 
likewise had been carried off to Germany to take 
the places of men who had gone into the army. Six 
million Belgians, three million French, four million 
Serbs, and a million Italians, caught behind the Ger- 
man lines, were forced to labor for their conquerors. 
The result was that in the month of March, 191 8, 
after the close of the fighting on the Russian and Rou- 
manian fronts, the Germans were able to put upon the 
western front an army which outnumbered the French, 
British, and their allies by more than a half million 
men. It must be remembered that 300,000 of the 
Allied army were the Americans who had arrived in 
France by March, most of whom were, as yet, not well 
enough trained to be sent into battle. However, 
more were on their way, and two million were to be 
expected by 19 19, so Ludendorfl and Hindenburg 
decided that the war must be over before America 
should get well into it. One mighty drive was to 
do it, a colossal effort. The doors of peace were 
to be splintered open by the "iron fist and shining 
sword." 



28o 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



The date set for the attack was the first day of 
spring, March 21. Although Hindenburg was still 
Chief of the General Staff, which position made 
him practically Commander-in-Chief of the German 

armies, it is com- 
monly thought 
that the real 
brain at the Ger- 
man Headquar- 
ters was General 
von LudendorfL 
This officer had 
been Hinden- 
burg's right- 
hand man in all 
the eastern cam- 
paigns. It was 
he who planned 
the strategy of 
the battles of 
Tannenberg and 
the Mazurian 
Lakes. He was now the Quartermaster-General of the 
army. In his book on the war, published in 191 9, he 
tells how the original plan of the March attack had 
been to smash through the British lines south of Ypres 
and to get to the sea, cutting off and capturing the 
British and Belgian forces to the north. 

The deep, sticky Flanders mud was to be con- 
sidered, however. It would be April before it 




General Ludendorff 



AT LOWEST EBB 281 

would be dry enough to get through. But the 
American soldiers were coming — 50,000 per month 
now, and Hindenburg and Ludendorff felt that they 
must strike hard and quickly while they still had the 
advantage of numbers. 

Accordingly, the higher ground to the south was 
picked out for the point of attack. The main assault 
was to be made by the German Seventeenth Army 
just west of Cambrai, where Byng's men of the Third 
British Army had remained intrenched ever since 
the battle of the first week of December. It was 
planned that the Germans should break through 
and curve northward, rolling up the British to 
the north by taking them in the rear. The Second 
and Eighteenth German Armies were to break 
through to the south, near St. Quentin. They 
were not expected to go far, for in front of them 
lay the region that the Germans had so thoroughly 
and cruelly laid waste during their retreat the 
year before. They were merely to dislodge the 
British Fifth Army, drive a wedge between this 
force and the French troops farther south, and 
prevent any French help from being sent north. 
Meanwhile, other armies in Flanders, east of Rheims, 
and in Alsace were to pretend to attack, in order 
to keep reinforcements from being sent to the 
Arras-Cambrai front. Such was the plan. But 
the result was far different. 

On the morning of the 21st of March, a terrific 
bombardment broke out on a front of over fifty 



282 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

miles. High explosive shells and shells filled with 
new and deadly poisonous gases burst in a terrible 
rain on the British front line trenches and the space 
just behind. After five or six hours of this storm, 
so frightful that the Germans might well believe 
that not a living thing was left in the area bom- 
barded, picked German troops advanced to the 
attack. For days these men had been assembling. 
Moving forward only at night, hiding by day in 
woods and under " camouflaged" canvas screens, 
they had escaped the notice of the British air ob- 
servers. On a narrow front near St. Quentin three 
British divisions stood guard. There had been an 
equal number of Germans facing them, but on the 
morning of the attack there were eight hostile divi- 
sions and not three who poured "over the top." 
Nearly 1,100,000 Germans were hurled, after this 
deadly rain of gases and big shells, upon 600,000 
British on a front of fifty miles. 

To make the surprise and. confusion all the worse, 
the weather was very foggy, and the British out- 
posts, who stood with their machine guns ready to 
repel any hostile attack, in many cases found them- 
selves surrounded and captured, before firing a shot, 
by Germans who had filtered in between them in 
the mist. For some time there had been warnings 
of a great German attack. The British Generals 
Home (First Army), Plumer (Second Army), and 
Byng (Third Army) had been on the alert. General 
Rawlinson of the Fourth Army was also on the 



AT LOWEST EBB 283 

lookout, but the Fifth British Army under General 
Sir Hugh Gough had fallen into the old error of 
underestimating the strength of the enemy. 

The suspicious signs behind the German lines that 
told of something unusual going on had been re- 
ported to Gough. He had neglected to post his 
reserves, and he paid the penalty of his neglect. 
Outnumbered three to one, overwhelmed by gases 
and shells as well as by the numbers of their as- 
sailants, his men put up a brave but fruitless fight. 
They had to retreat, and to retreat rapidly to keep 
from being wiped out. 

Meanwhile, the French troops to the south of 
them had been pushed aside and flung into a new 
position, facing nearly directly north. Straight 
to the west retreated the broken forces of Gough, 
followed by the victorious Eighteenth German Army. 
It will be recalled that these troops were not expected 
to drive their opponents very far. The chief break 
in the British line was to have been made further 
north, where the Seventeenth and Second German 
Armies faced Byng and Home. But when General 
von Hutier, their commander, saw Gough 's men in 
rapid retreat, he felt that victory lay in completing 
the disorganization of this force, thus separating the 
British from the French. On he drove, over the 
great stretch of desert left behind by the Germans in 
the retreat of 191 7. A gap over thirty miles wide 
was left between the retreating British and the 
French. Things looked dark, indeed. 



284 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Meanwhile, what of the attack in the north ? 
Here, as you have been told, was the Germans' 
main effort. The break through was to have been 
between Home and Byng. But, though out- 
numbered nearly as badly as had been the Fifth 
Army, the First and Third were better handled. 
Though the gray-green masses swarmed upon them 
in countless hordes, they did not budge. The 
carnage was terrible. Firing at point blank range, 
the British and Canadian gunners spread death 
among the on-coming Germans. Home's men, with 
their backs to Vimy Ridge, refused to be moved 
from this ground that the Canadians had won at 
such a cost the year before. 

Byng's men, farther south, held their ground 
"not wisely but too well," for while they stood 
firm Gough's army, south of them, was moving 
rapidly westward. The result was that on the 
next day there was opened up, between the two 
British armies, a gap eight miles wide, toward which 
the troops of Von der Marwitz were swiftly moving 
to take Byng's men in the rear. 

The rout of Gough's men had opened up two great 
gaps which seemed to spell disaster for the Allied 
forces. But at this juncture Sir Douglas Haig called 
upon a brigadier general literally to throw himself 
into the breach. General Sandeman Carey was 
ordered, at all costs and by any means that he could 
use, to close the eight-mile gap between Gough's 
retreating men and the army of Byng. 



AT LOWEST EBB 285 

It was a "rag-tag and bob-tail" force that Carey 
collected : sappers, signal men, laborers, and 
engineers, anybody who would handle a rifle or work 
a machine gun. They worked frantically to dig 
shallow trenches, and there they stuck for five vital 
days, days that saved the British army from a great 
disaster. General Carey and his officers, none of 
whom knew the men that they had collected, walked 
up and down the lines, encouraging the soldiers 
by word and example. Finally the reserves came 
up — help was at hand ; Byng had moved back the 
southern end of his army to keep the line where 
Gough's men finally stuck, and the French began to 
arrive. 

And the thirty-mile gap to the south had been 
closed in similar manner. General Fayolle (fay61'), 
one of the greatest soldiers of France, had arrived 
on the field at a critical time. Rapidly he hurled 
three French divisions into the gap. Ten German 
divisions at once attacked them, but the thin blue 
line held firmly. The Germans had moved so rapidly 
in their frantic effort to end the war by one "big 
push" that they were broken up and disorganized. 
LudendorfT tells us that the men found appetiz- 
ing food in the material left behind by the British. 
It was the first time that many of them had tasted 
butter for months, and, instead of following up the 
retreating British closely, many of them dropped 
out of the pursuit in order to stuff themselves with 
the spoils. Be that as it may, Fayolle's thin line 



286 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



in the south, like Carey's in the north, refused to 
budge. And the French reserves came up swiftly, 
to stop the gaps and to take the places of Gough's 
tired men. 

But when the drive was over the Germans were 

only ten miles from the 
important city of Amiens. 
They had retaken all the 
territory that they had 
abandoned (and had laid 
waste) in 191 7, and had 
advanced, in some places, 
nearly ten miles farther 
west than the old trenches 
of 19 14-19 1 6. More than 
eight hundred square miles 
of French territory had 
fallen into their hands, 
including the important 
towns of Albert, Lassigny, 
Noyon, Montdidier (mon' 
(g)did'ya')> and Moreuil (mo'ru'ee')- Ninety thou- 
sand prisoners, chiefly British, and over a thousand 
guns had been taken. 

That Ludendorff did not relish his new position 
he freely admits, for behind his lines lay the desert 
that his men had made the year before, and it 
would be no easy task to transport food and am- 
munition across this waste. 

Desperately he tried to get out of this bad situation 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Fayolle 



AT LOWEST EBB 



287 




Bruges 



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Amiens I 

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THE DRIVE OF MARCH 21 

AS PLANNED BY LUDENDORFF, 
AND AS ACTUALLY ACCOMPLISHED 



Hindenburg Line, as held by the Germans on March 20 



H H Portion of line held by Home's British Army (First) 
B B " " " " Byng's " " (Third) 

GG " " " " " Gough's " " (Fifth) 

■hh Battle line on April 1, after the drive had been halted 
m^m Gap closed by Carey's men 
J lm l^ if ■> Fayolle's " 

Territory held by the Germans from 191U to 1917, and laid 
waste by them in their retreat to the Hindenburg Lint 



288 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

by pushing on to Amiens in the west. But his 
exhausted troops could go no further, and the 
French and British, rapidly digging in, barred his 
way in all directions. His losses, in all probability, 
had been nearly as great as those of the Allies, for 
while he had taken many prisoners, the number of 
men sacrificed in the massed attacks on Home's 
and Byng's armies had been tremendous. 

And all the while peace was no nearer. For the 
Allies could not be stampeded, nor frightened, nor 
bluffed into premature dealings with the enemy. 
On the morning of March 23, when the news of the 
great German drive was filling the thoughts of the 
people of Paris, a shell burst in the city, and then 
another and another. Twenty-four in all fell in the 
course of the day. The air men searched the skies 
to locate the enemy who was dropping the bombs, 
but could find none. For a day or two the whole 
city was puzzled. Finally a piece of one of the 
shells was shown to Prime Minister Clemenceau. 
who promptly declared that the Germans must have 
invented a long range gun which sent these shells 
all the way from the German trenches, over 
sixty miles away. The Allied artillery experts said 
that this was nonsense, for a gun would burst if 
loaded with a charge strong enough to carry a shell 
sixty miles. Yet Clemenceau was right, and the 
artillery experts were wrong. The Germans were 
bombarding Paris with three great guns, hidden 
away in the forest of St. Gobain, seventy-four miles 



AT LOWEST EBB 289 

distant. The military advantage gained by the guns 
was very small. It was simply intended to frighten 
the people of Paris,- to make them fear the Germans, 
and to incline them toward peace. The firing of the 
guns was begun just at the time when the Germans 
judged that the people of Paris would be in a panic 
on account of the near approach of the German 
armies. But it was proved once more that the 
Junkers did not understand the temper of the French. 
As soon as they knew what it was, they shrugged 
their shoulders and went about their business as 
usual. Every day a few people were killed, but — 
"Cest la guerre' (sa la gair) (That is war) said the 
French. 

On Good Friday a great number of people had 
gathered for worship in the church of St. Gervais 
(san'zhair va') . A shell from one of the German guns 
struck the side of the building, and thousands of 
tons of stone fell with a mighty crash upon the 
kneeling congregation. It is doubtful whether any 
one discharge of a single gun before ever did so much 
mischief, for seventy-five people were instantly killed, 
fifty-four of whom were women; and ninety others, 
several of whom died later, were writhing in agony on 
the floor. The Pope sent a strong letter of protest 
to the German government, and all over the world 
people were filled with horror at the deed ; but 
the Kaiser sent a letter of congratulation to the 
Krupp Gun Works, where these guns had been 
made, and the great weapons kept on blazing away. 



290 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Not long afterwards the Germans scored another 
triumph. A baby asylum was hit by a shell and 
twenty little lives were ended. 

The Germans had guessed badly again. French- 
men gritted their teeth and swore that there should 
be no peace until this brutal force was crushed for all 
time. 

For nearly four years the Allies had fought, each 
his own battle in his own way. True, the com- 
manding generals often agreed to act together, as 
Foch and Haig had attacked at the same time on 
July 1, 19 1 6. But true unity of command, such as 
the enemy had, was sadly lacking. However, in the 
crisis of the week following March 21, General Per- 
shing, the American commander, told the Allied War 
Council in Paris that the Americans favored the 
appointment of a French general as commander-in- 
chief of all the armies in the field. The British 
General Wilson admitted that a commander-in-chief 
was needed. There was only one name considered : 
that of General Ferdinand Foch, of whom Joffre had 
said, "Foch is the best strategist in Europe." 

On March 28, it was announced that there was a 
Commander-in-Chief, and next day General Pershing 
placed at the disposal of the new chief all the Ameri- 
can forces in France. The offer was accepted, and 
the men in training camps were hurried up and 
placed in reserve behind the new fighting lines. 

From March 29 to April 9 there was no change 
worth mentioning in the battle lines. But it was 



AT LOWEST EBB 



291 



not the rest caused by inactivity. It was the lack 
of motion due to two tremendous forces, pushing 
with equal power in opposite directions. 

For the Germans, undaunted by their previous 
failure here, made a second determined attempt to 
capture Arras and Vimy Ridge. Although it was 
given very little attention at the time, this was one of 
the most tremendous battles of the entire war. Nine- 
teen chosen divisions, all 
picked storm troops, over 
200,000 men, attacked on 
a front of ten miles. It 
was as determined and 
well planned an assault as 
the drive of March 21. 
The formation of the Ger- 
mans was even more 
dense, if possible, and the 
difference in the result came 
from the fact that the 
British were ready. The 
blow fell, but the London 
regiments, which happened to be holding that part 
of the line, were looking for it. Outnumbered 
and outgunned, the British held on with the same 
dogged courage that saved Ypres and the Channel 
ports in the desperate fighting of October and 
November, 19 14. Their machine guns and light 
artillery poured a murderous fire into the advanc- 
ing Germans. 




Underwood and Underwood 

General Horne 



292 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Finally flesh and blood could stand it no more. 
Von Biilow and Crown Prince Rupprecht of Bavaria 
drew off their exhausted men. Arras and Vimy 
Ridge were safe. These positions were the keys 
to the whole situation. While the British held 
them firmly there could be little advance on either 
side by the forces of the enemy, without exposing 
themselves to a flank attack. The one great object 
of Ludendorffs drive was to break through the Brit- 
ish line at Arras. After two weeks of terrible car- 
nage the British line before Vimy Ridge and Arras 
was still unbroken. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. How did the Bolshevik peace proposals compare with the 
terms of Wilson and Lloyd-George? 

2. Did the Bolsheviki represent a "majority" of the Russian 
people, as their name would indicate? 

3. Why did the Bolsheviki fail in their appeal to the German work- 
ingmen ? 

4. How did the Germans keep their peace pledges to the Russians ? 

5. How did Germany profit in the "exchange of prisoners"? 

6. Why were the Czechs and .Slovaks unwilling to be turned over 
to the Austrians ? 

7. Why did Roumania have to surrender? 

8. Why did the Central Powers have the advantage in man power ? 

9. What was the first plan of the Germans for the big attack ? 

10. Why was the plan changed? 

11. Why did it not work out as originally planned? 

12. What caused the two gaps in the Allied line? 

13. Why was Ludendorff's position unsatisfactory to him? 

14. What was the purpose of the long range guns? 

15. Why was a commander-in-chief needed? 

16. Why was Vimy Ridge so important to the Allies? 



CHAPTER XI 
Ships, Fuel, and Food 

Torpedoes vs. depth bombs. — Why the Grand Fleet was safe. — 
The convoy system. — The "Q" boats. — Ship building vs. ship 
sinking. — Taking over the interned German vessels. — The 
bridge of ships carries 10,000 men a day. — Food saving and 
substitutes. — The fuel administration. — The "work or fight" 
order. — Ribot, Vilgrain, and the American commission. — Seal- 
ing up the submarine exits. 

There is no doubt that if the German submarines 
had continued to sink ships at the rate at which 
they were torpedoing them in April, 191 7, the war 
would have been over before January. The Germans 
were not so far wrong in boasting that within six 
months they would have England suing for peace. 
England had to have food ; she could grow very 
little of what she needed on her own island. The 
great bulk of her food had to be shipped in to her. 
But with 800,000 tons of food and other supplies 
going to the bottom of the sea every month, it was 
a simple problem in arithmetic to figure just when 
the starving time would be reached. 

The Grand Fleet of the British empire rode the 
seas unharmed. Why? Because all around it 
circled the swift destroyers. A torpedo is a little 
submarine boat in itself. It sails along about fif- 

293 



294 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

teen feet under water. (If it came nearer the surface 
the waves would turn it from its course.) It is driven 
by compressed air which turns the blades of its 
propeller. This compressed air, as it escapes, leaves 
a white trail of bubbles in the water which lingers 
long enough for one to trace back its path to the spot 
whence the torpedo was launched. 

Let the white streak appear on the water when 
a destroyer was within a quarter of a mile. Instantly 
this speedy little terror of the seas dashed to the 
beginning of the whiteness, dropped a depth bomb, 
then circled rapidly around, dropping bombs at 
short intervals. As it could travel five times as 
fast as the submerged enemy, the submarine which 
escaped was lucky. 

After Otto Weddingen, captain of the U-2Q, had 
leaped into fame by torpedoing the Hogue, the 
Cressy, and the Aboukir in rapid succession, the 
Germans felt that it would only be a question of 
time till their submarines would so diminish the size 
of the British Grand Fleet that their own High Seas 
Fleet could venture out and fight it on equal terms. 
But a little later the final adventure of the same 
Otto Weddingen taught them that their hopes were 
vain. 

His U-2Q dived under the screen of destroyers, 
and, rising in the midst of the British battleships, 
shot a torpedo at the Neptune, but the Neptune 
avoided the blow and the Dreadnought ran him 
down. He and his men met the awful fate that they 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 295 

had dealt to a thousand British sailors, and no more 
attempts were made to torpedo the British Fleet. 

It was out in the open seas where thousands of 
freighters were sailing that the submarines did their 
deadly work. The destroyers were too few. The 
submarine had all the advantage. She could see her 
enemy at a great distance, while invisible herself 
save at short range. When the destroyer arrived 
at the scene of a sinking the pirate might be miles 
away, safe and out of sight. 

In April, 191 7, the British naval authorities were 
downcast and gloomy. In May an experiment was 
tried which showed them that they could protect 
their shipping. A large group of the ships sailed 
together from Gibraltar, surrounded by swift, circling 
destroyers. Now for the first time the hunters had 
a chance, for the submarine had to come to them 
instead of their seeking him. For when this convoy 
system should become general, the submarine could 
seek his prey only behind the circle of his dreaded 
foes, the destroyers. 

There still were serious losses. There were not 
enough destroyers, even after the American ships 
joined their British comrades in this work, to convoy 
the fleets of merchantmen from the New World to 
the Old. The best that could be done was for the 
convoy of destroyers to meet them and to escort 
them through the sea lanes where the greatest danger 
lay. 

It was impossible to convoy all vessels. Some 



296 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

still had to sail singly and to run their chances. Sub- 
marines were able, often, to break through the ring 
of destroyers and to torpedo some vessel within. 
True, they took great chances when they did so, and 
an increasing number of them committed suicide in 
this manner. 

A streak in the water, — a dull explosion as the 
torpedo strikes a ship of the convoy, — a list to 
one side, and the crew takes to their lifeboats ; but 
in the meantime a swift avenger dashes toward 
the far end of the white streak, a tremendous up- 
heaval of water comes from far below the surface ; 
another and another, as the destroyer circles around 
dropping "ash-cans" astern. Finally, a smooth 
spot on the surface of the sea, a space covered with 
oil, through which air bubbles are bursting. That 
is all ; but the destroyer knows that one more pirate 
of the deep will never sink another ship. 

Meanwhile, daring Englishmen, true descendants 
of Hawkins and Drake, were hunting the U-boats 
after their own fashion. Certain ships, disguised as 
unarmed merchantmen, roamed the sea offering them- 
selves as bait to unwary German captains. 

Torpedoes were expensive, costing as much as 
$8000 apiece, and when the U-boat saw a helpless 
enemy ship he frequently rose to the surface and sank 
her by gunfire. Let him approach one of these "Q" 
ships, as they were called, and he would be allowed 
to come close, even to put two or three shots into 
the pretended merchantman. Suddenly, there was 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 297 

a signal, a large portion of the side of the ship fell 
away, and a great gun, which had been aimed at 
him from behind the screen, let fly a six-inch shell. 
One shot, in most cases, did the business, but if 
the first missed, there was generally time to com- 
plete the task with a second. One submarine 
finally escaped from a "Q" boat, and the word was 
passed to beware of approaching too closely to 
innocent-looking, lonely merchant ships. 

It was a race to get ships. The shipyards of the 
British Isles were working day and night to make 
up the losses at sea. All along the coast of the 
United States new shipyards sprang up. The Army 
and Navy Departments of our country made prep- 
arations for a war that would last five years, if not 
seven. Everywhere there was speeding up. Ameri- 
can shipyards were launching ships in increasing 
numbers. 

By the end of 191 7 the production of new ships 
each month was equal to three-fourths of the monthly 
loss by submarines. By the summer of 191 8 it had 
almost caught up. But there were other means 
of gaining ships. When the United States entered 
the war a great number of German vessels were in 
American ports. They had been caught on this 
side of the water in 19 14 and had not dared put to 
sea since that time. Among them was the Vater- 
land, the greatest steamer afloat, together with 
other big ocean liners. 

After Von Bernstorff was sent home, the crews of 



298 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



these vessels, foreseeing that war would probably 
follow, took advantage of the fact that they were 
still allowed to remain on board. They smashed 
the turbine engines that drove them, and chuckled 




i Committee on Public Information 

Damage Done to One of the German Ships Docked at Hoboken 

with glee as they thought that nobody outside of 
Germany would ever be able to repair them. When 
war broke out and the United States government 
took over the ships, electric welders were sent on 
board, who, in a short time, had welded together the 
broken parts of the machinery in such a fashion 
that it was stronger than ever. 

The Vaterland, renamed the Leviathan, carried 



300 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

American troops to France at the rate of 26,000 
a month. When the German drive broke through 
the British lines in March, 191 8, the Allies called 
on America for more men. There were 300,000 in 
France on March 1 ; 200,000 crossed the seas in 
the months of March and April, and 245,000 in 
May. By July 1, there were a million Americans 
in France, and they were coming at the rate of 
10,000 a day, 300,000 a month ! 

In order to feed this great army and to supply it 
with munitions, one hundred pounds of cargo for 
each soldier had to reach France every day. This 
amounted to 50,000 tons per day on the first day 
of July, and it kept mounting until November 1, 
when the number of our soldiers in France had 
reached 2,000,000. 

A perfect bridge of ships, was needed to carry 
this great mass of material. And in addition to 
supplies for our own army it should be remembered 
that we were feeding a large part of the people of 
Great Britain, France, and Belgium. 

Before the war we exported a great deal of wheat 
each year. But we also imported a great deal from 
Canada. We really produced only about 2,000,000 
bushels more than we actually ate ourselves. Yet 
now we were called upon to export wheat and still 
more wheat. This meant that we had to do without 
wheat, save wheat, substitute other grains for wheat. 
A campaign for the saving of food was begun, sys- 
tematically, all over the United States. All Europe, 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 



301 



for months and months, had been on strict rations — 
just so much meat and so much sugar and butter 
allowed each person each day, but it was a new 
experience to the average American to deny himself 
anything or any amount of anything that he might 
wish to eat. 

Mr. Herbert Hoover, 
the American engineer who 
had saved the Belgian 
people from starvation, 
was called home and made 
Food Administrator. Con- 
gress gave him very wide 
powers and allowed him 
to appoint other men with 
similar powers in every 
state and county. Mr. 
Hoover and his assistants 
began a campaign to let 
the people of the United 

States know the situation. "Food will win the 
war — don't waste it!" said one of their posters. 
1 1 Put it here and the Kaiser will get it ! " said 
another, showing a picture of a garbage can. "Save 
meat (use more fish and eggs), sugar (use syrups 
instead), wheat (use rye, barley, and corn), and fats," 
said another. 

All over the country patriotic people used as little 
wheat as possible. The sugar was rationed out. Sub- 
stitutes for butter were freely used . Certain days were 




Clinedinst Studio 

Herbert Hoover 



302 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

set aside as ' ' wheatless " ; others as "sugarless"; 
still others, as "fatless." It was not uncom- 
mon to find a food administrator making a 
program like this : ' ' Monday and Wednesday, wheat- 
less days, Tuesday and Friday, meatless days. 
Have every morning a baconless breakfast. Satur- 
day, fatless day, etc." 

Of course these rules could only be carried out 
because the patriotic spirit of the people was behind 
them. Here and there people were found who were 
selfish enough to eat whatever they wanted, when- 
ever they wanted it; but these cases were few. 
Public opinion was back of the government, and not 
many people dared to oppose this great force. 

The winter of 191 7- 191 8 was a terribly severe one. 
All over the United States the weather broke records 
for continued cold, deep snow, and low temperatures. 
All these ships crossing the Atlantic needed coal, 
and more coal. France and Italy needed coal. 
The greatest coal region of France was in the hands 
of the Germans, and Italy had almost no mines of 
her own. Congress gave the President the right 
to appoint a fuel administrator, and then gave that 
official great powers. 

Harry A. Garfield was appointed to this important 
post. (Dr. Garfield, president of Williams College, 
is a son of James A. Garfield, President of the United 
States in 1881.) 

The coal problem came to be a severe one. At 
last a crisis was reached, and Dr. Garfield issued an 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 



3°3 



order that all stores, shops, factories, and other works 
not engaged in an " essential industry" should close 
for four continuous days in order to save coal ; and 
then, until further notice, should be open only five 
days a week, closing Mondays. In spite of some 
murmurs at this drastic 
order, the great majority 
of the business men affect- 
ed took this in a patriotic 
manner, and lived up to 
the rule. 

The government issued 
a "work or fight" order 
that had a big effect in 
getting rid of the parasites 
that the nation had been 
feeding. Whether he were 
the lazy son of a million- 
aire who had refused to 
earn his living in the past, 
or an equally worthless 
beggar or tramp, the idle 

man had to account for himself ; he either had to 
get into some useful work or enlist in the fighting 
forces. At a time when patriotic women were 
taking men's places in the numberless industries, 
when some one had to do the work of the three 
million young men who were in military service, 
there was no sympathy wasted on the loafer, whether 
he was rich or poor. 




Dr. Harry A. Garfield 



304 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

' ' Help feed our fighters ! Save food ! ' ' said the 
posters. And the nation saved in a way that it 
had never saved before. White bread almost dis- 
appeared. In its place there came loaves of various 
shades of brown or gray, according to the pro- 
portion of rye, barley, or rice flour mixed in with 
the wheat. Meat disappeared from many a table. 
Sugar became a luxury. 

An American commission of six men had gone 
abroad to confer with the governments of Great 
Britain and France upon the food situation. At 
this time the British Food Administrator was Lord 
Rhondda, a Welshman whose name used to be Mr. 
Thomas before he was made a peer. The French 
Food Administrator was Alexandre Ribot, the aged 
ex-prime minister of the Republic. M. Ribot had 
as his assistant M. Vilgrain, a rather remarkable man. 
Vilgrain had walked into Paris at the age of twelve, a 
barefooted boy without a cent in his pocket. When the 
war broke out, at the age of fifty, he was worth twelve 
million francs, and was counted one of France's most 
prominent business men. He had walked into the 
ofrice of the prime minister, had laid down his check 
for twelve million francs, his entire fortune, and had 
said: "That is for France. When the war is over, 
I can start anew. Now, put me to work !" 

When the members of the American commission 
called upon M. Ribot, they had found him and M. 
Vilgrain plunged into the deepest gloom. On the 
desk before them lay a telegram from Lord Rhondda, 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 



305 



saying that Mr. Hoover had just cabled him that 
six million bushels of wheat a month was all that 
America could spare to France for the next half 
year. It seemed that France had asked for eleven 
million bushels a month, 
as the least amount on 
which she could get 
along. 

"Messieurs les Ame- 
ricains" said Ribot. 
"It is a terrible thing 
that Monsieur Hoover 
has said to us. I do 
not know what we can 
do! France needs 
bread ; it is our one 
great food. We haven't 
wheat ourselves, and 
we cannot get it. I 
dread to think of the 

hungry women filling the streets, crying for ' Bread, 
bread, bread!' as they did in '93. If the sound 
of that cry reaches our brave poilu in the front 
line trenches, it will break him. He cannot fight 
when he knows that his wife and his mother and 
his children are starving. France has held out 
for three and a half years, on starvation rations, 
but there is a limit to human endurance. If this 
message is true, I tell you France will crack !" The 
old gentleman's grief and anxiety were pathetic. 




Photo by Manuel 

Alexandre Ribot 



306 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

The Americans were sure that there must be some 
mistake. America would not fail her ally in that 
fashion, said they. They would cable Mr. Hoover 
at once, and return as soon as they had some news. 

A cable was immediately sent, and the com- 
missioners paid for it out of their own pockets, — 
#240.00 it cost them. Then they waited, anxiously 
and impatiently, for the reply. No reply that day, 
although they sat up almost all night waiting for it. 

But early next morning came the answer : ' ' Your 
information incorrect. Message should have read : 
'Will not send eleven million bushels of wheat per 
month to France, but sixteen million, and this the 
American people will save by depriving themselves 
at their daily table.' Hoover." 

Such a jubilation as followed the receipt of this 
message. Now to get the news to Ribot ! 

Getting a 'taxicab in Paris in January, 191 8, was 
a serious matter. One had to give at least an hour's 
notice, and then it was by no means sure that 
he could get one at all. Almost all the cabs of 
France were at the front, carrying wounded men to 
the rear, or fresh soldiers into the fight. The six 
Americans were too impatient to wait. Although 
it was the middle of winter, they dashed out 
into the street to waylay the first motor car that 
might come by. 

Presently they saw one, and they strung out across 
the street so that it could not get by without running 
down one of them. None of them could think of 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 307 

the French word for "Stop," but they shouted all 
kinds of French phrases to the driver, as he drew 
near. One yelled "Bon jour, monsieur" (Good 
day, sir), another " a la gauche, a la gauche " (to 
the left, to the left), another " combien? combien? " 
(How much, how much?) The driver pulled up, 
looked over this crowd of hatless and coatless 
maniacs and in the broadest of Bowery accents, 
asked, "Hey, wot's matter wid youse guys? Are 
youse drunk ? " He was a New York boy, it appeared, 
and had recognized them as fellow Americans. They 
all piled into the car, and the driver broke the 
speed laws getting them to the office of the Food 
Administrator. They rang the bell, and the old 
wooden-legged soldier, veteran of the Marne who, 
dressed in an evening suit, answered calls morn- 
ing, noon, and night, opened the door. Ah yes, 
Messieurs the Americains ! If messieurs would kindly 
be seated, perhaps M. Ribot would see them. But 
Messieurs les Americains would not be seated. 
Instead of that, messieurs rather rudely ran by the 
old soldier into M. Ribot 's private office. There 
at the table sat Ribot and Vilgrain. They evidently 
hall not been in bed at all, for the table was covered 
with paper on which they had been figuring, figuring 
desperately how much hay and straw and potato 
flour and stubble they would have to mix each 
month, with the six million bushels of American 
wheat in order to keep France from starvation. 
They looked wretched. Ribot seemed ten years 



308 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

older than on the day before, and Vilgrain's face 
was worn and haggard. 

"Messieurs Ribot and Vilgrain," began Everett 
Colby, the chairman of the American group, "We 
told you there was some mistake. We told you 
that America was not going to fail France. Read 
that!" and he threw Hoover's cablegram on the 
table. 

The aged Ribot picked it up, but his hand trembled 
so that he could not read it. Vilgrain came to his 
assistance, and together they held it steady for just 
one minute, then both fell forward, sobbing, over 
the table. They arose quickly and embraced in 
true French fashion. Then the white-bearded ex- 
prime minister, with tears streaming down his 
cheeks, exclaimed, "Messieurs les Americains, tell 
your noble country that she is repaying us twenty 
fold for any little service we may ever have done for 
her." 

One more story of a heroic exploit at sea and then 
we shall return to the fighting by land. 

For three years the Belgian ports of Zeebrugge 
and Ostend had been the favorite harbors of refuge of 
the German submarines. They were connected by 
deep, wide canals with Bruges, where the U-boats, 
brought in pieces from Germany, were put together 
and launched, as you have already been told. On the 
night of April 22, 191 8, a gallant attempt was made, 
under the direction of Vice Admiral Sir Roger Keyes 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 309 

(Kiz), to block up the mouths of these troublesome 
canals. Four small British cruisers, too old to be fit 
for modern war, took part in the raid on Zeebrugge. 
They were accompanied by British and French de- 
stroyers, which went ahead, making a screen of smoke 
so dense that none of the vessels were seen until they 
were close to the long, curving, concrete breakwater 
which protected the harbor. 

Three of the old cruisers, filled with cement, 
waited while the fourth, the Vindictive, accompanied 
by two ferry boats, steamed up alongside the break- 
water. Then, when the alarm had been given, and 
while the Germans were turning all their search- 
lights and guns on the Vindictive and her consorts, 
the other three cruisers slipped around inside the 
breakwater and steamed up the channel toward the 
mouth of the canal. The Thetis, leading the way, 
got her propeller tangled in a net that hung to keep 
out enemy submarines, and had to stop just outside 
the mouth of the canal. The other two fared better, 
landing well inside the canal and turning so as to 
fill it from side to side. Then their crews sunk all 
three vessels, boarded motor launches, and fled 
away in the darkness. The Germans had found 
them, meanwhile, and they did not get off unscathed. 
As the ships, laden with cement, filled with water, 
the water turned them into solid blocks of concrete, 
sealing up the canal as with stone. 

Meanwhile, the gallant Vindictive was being shot 
to pieces on the other side of the mole (breakwater). 



310 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Her deck carried an extra high platform of wood, 
from the top of which the sailors and marines had 
climbed to the top of the mole. 

This storming party, about five hundred in num- 
ber, suffered cruelly from the fire of the German guns. 
One big shell burst among a party of fifty-six marines 
who were waiting, on the Vindictive, for orders to 
land. Forty-nine were killed, the other seven 
wounded. When the stormers met the Germans on 
the mole, a fierce hand-to-hand fight broke out. In 
the midst of this combat there was a thunderous 
explosion and a great portion of the breakwater flew 
into the air, carrying with it a number of the Ger- 
mans. 

An old English submarine had quietly moved in 
and had been exploded under a portion of the mole 
which was really a bridge, for there was a passage 
beneath it for the tide- water. Thus the forward 
Germans, cut off from retreat, were driven into the 
sea. All this time the Vindictive 1 s big howitzer 
was registering direct hits on the German seaplane 
station ; but at last came a big shell that put the 
howitzer and its whole crew out of action. 

Finally the word came that the Thetis, Intrepid, 
and Iphigenia were successfully sunk ; the survivors 
of the landing party were called back ; and the 
gallant old Vindictive, her upper parts in rags and 
tatters, steamed out to sea. Her hull had been pro- 
tected from serious damage by the concrete mole 
behind which she lay. The two ferry boats had 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 31 1 

played no small part in the adventure. Theirs 
had been the task of holding the Vindictive against 
the mole. With their noses against her side their 
engines had kept up the pressure. 

Five hundred and eighty-eight men, two hundred 
of whom were killed, were lost to the British navy by 
this heroic exploit. But one submarine lair had 
been closed, for the rest of the war. 

Captain Carpenter of the Vindictive had seven 
bullets through his clothes, his hat, and his binocular 
case, but escaped with only one wound. 

The expedition to close the canal at Ostend the 
same night did not fare so well. Small British 
craft ran in and lighted fires to mark the two sides 
of the mouth of the canal. But the wind turned 
about this time, and blew strongly out to sea. 
The screen of smoke was blown away and the 
Germans could see the British ships plainly by the 
glare of the searchlights. Gunfire extinguished the 
fires that had been lighted, and there was nothing 
to tell the commanders of the old cruisers, the Sirius 
and the Brilliant, where the mouth of the channel 
lay. These were the two ships that were to do for 
Ostend what the Intrepid and Iphigenia had done 
at Zeebrugge. They ran aground in the shallow 
water, some distance from the mouth of the canal, 
and had to be abandoned. The Ostend expedition 
had failed. 

But the British were not content. Seventeen 
days later the battered old Vindictive started out 



(5 i2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

once more, this time toward Ostend. The Germans 
were on the alert this time. Their six big batteries 
cut loose with all guns, while the star shells and 
rockets turned night into day. But the weather, 
which had been hostile at the time of the first 
attempt, now turned friendly. A mist came down 
which partially hid the Vindictive and her attendant 
destroyers and motor launches. Twice the old cruiser 
passed the mouth of the channel in the darkness, 
and twice she saw her mistake and turned back. 
On the third trip she came in close, and as the 
mist cleared away for a minute, there lay the 
entrance, dead ahead. 

A motor boat dashed in and lighted a flare on 
the water, by the glare of which the Vindictive en- 
tered the canal. Commander Godsal, who had been 
captain of the Brilliant in the previous attempt, 
was the present captain of the cruiser. He ob- 
served a break in the eastern wall of the channel 
about two hundred yards from its mouth. Up past 
this point he steamed, his ship now plainly visible. 
A hail of death rained in upon the cruiser, as the 
helm was put over and she turned to lay her 320 feet 
of length across the canal. A shell struck the conning 
tower, and the captain was killed. The ship turned 
until she would turn no further, and the engineer and 
Lieutenant Crutchley threw the switches that ex- 
ploded the charges laid in the hull. The old ship 
leaped, then settled six feet till she lay on the bottom. 
Her work was done. 



SHIPS, FUEL, AND FOOD 313 

No more submarines and German destroyers 
came forth from the mouths of the Ostend and Zee- 
brugge canals to prey upon helpless merchantmen. 
A photograph of Bruges, where the two canals meet, 
was taken shortly afterward by a British airman. 
It showed a great number of these pests of the sea, 
lying at the docks there, securely bottled up and use- 
less for the rest of the war. There were still sub- 
marines preying upon Allied and neutral commerce ; 
but they had to take the long, roundabout journey 
from Cuxhaven, Heligoland, and the mouth of the 
Kiel Canal. 

The British Navy had shown that its men were 
just as ready to give their lives for their country as 
in the days of Drake or Nelson. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why did so much food have to be shipped into Great Britain? 

2. What protected the war vessels from the submarines? 

3. How could the destroyers detect a submarine? 

4. How did the convoy system help to solve the problem? 

5. How were the "Q" ships able to sink submarines? 

6. What happened to the German ships that were in our ports 
when war was declared? 

7. Why was America called upon to save so much wheat? 

8. What foods were especially needed for export? 

9. Why were Food and Fuel Administrators appointed? 

1 o. Would a " no loafing ' ' law be a good thing in peace as well as war ? 

11. What did Ribot fear? 

12. What had France done for America? 

13. What was the plan at Zeebrugge and Ostend ? 

14. Why did the first attempt at Ostend fail? 

15. Why were the U-boats at Bruges useless for the rest of the war? 



CHAPTER XII 
Hold the Fort 

The mighty drive at the Channel ports. — The defeat of the Portu- 
guese. — Haig's appeal to his men. — The French to the rescue. 
— How they died on Mont Kemmel. — The great attack of 
April 29. — Rizzo and the Austrian navy. — The drive at the 
Aisne. — Foch prepares the way for counter attacks. — The 
"Tiger" defies his enemies. — Help is on the way. — The Ameri- 
cans at Cantigny. — The Second Division at Chateau-Thierry. — 
The young Americans show their ignorance. — The drive toward 
Paris. — Petain strikes back with Mangin's army. — u Le Bois de 
la Brigade de Marine." 

We left the British standing firmly on Vimy 
Ridge and in front of Arras. In order to hold these 
important positions men had been taken from the 
territory to the north, in the valley of the Lys, 
between Ypres and Vimy. While still pretending 
to keep up the attack on Arras, the Germans were 
secretly massing men and guns for a third tremendous 
thrust farther north. On April 9 they opened with 
a most terrific bombardment, selecting as the point 
of attack the trenches in front of the town of Armen- 
tieres, held by the small Portuguese army. 

On the space of eleven miles, from Armentieres to 
La Bassee (bas'sa/) Canal, it is estimated that sixty 
thousand shells exploded, full of poison gas, so that a 
wide area was positively drenched in this evil vapor, 

314 



HOLD THE FORT 



315 



which killed every living thing that breathed it. 
The British troops were all supplied with gas masks, 
but some of the new gases were so powerful that they 
partially passed through the masks and stupefied 
the wearers. The high explosive shells fell for miles 
behind the front line trenches. In fact it seemed as 
if no creature, man or beast, could be left alive in 
a deep area, almost ten miles square. 

Then came the charge of the infantry. Thirty 
German divisions, about 350,000 men, attacked over 
a space of ten, then fifteen miles, as the battle 
widened out. The Portuguese resisted bravely, but 
they had been nearly wiped out by the terrific bom- 
bardment. By sheer weight of numbers, the enemy 
pushed them back. Armentieres, Laventie, Warneton, 
Estaires fell into their hands, one after the other. 

The Messines-Wytschaete Ridge was taken, re- 
taken by a fierce charge of English regiments, then 
lost again. Still the Germans swept on. By the 
fifth day they had moved forward ten miles in some 
places*- ^and were still gaining. Sir Douglas Haig 
gave out an order to the British army which told 
the men of the seriousness of the danger. 

''Victory," said he, "will belong to the side which 
holds out the longer. There is no other course 
open to us but to fight it out. Every position must 
be held to the last man. There must be no retire- 
ment. The French army is moving rapidly and in 
great force to our support. With our backs to the 
wall, each one of us must fight to the end. The 



3i6 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



safety of our homes and the freedom of mankind 
depend alike upon the conduct of each one of us at 
this critical moment." 

How different from the Kaiser's bombastic speeches 

was this simple, soldierly 
statement ! 

For four more days the 
British held out, outnum- 
bered and outgunned. And 
then, oh, welcome sight ! 
there appeared a long line 
of stocky, wiry soldiers in 
horizon blue. They came 
marching up the roads to 
the front, a great river of 
men, flowing swiftly and 
filling all the low places and 
weak spots in the British 
lines. And now the task 
of the invaders became harder ; harder because 
the numbers were more nearly equal and because 
they were still in the low, flat plain of the Lys 
valley, while the Allies held the hills to the west. 
Pretty small hills they were, not much more than 
mounds, but they were easier to defend than 
the lowlands had been, and the Germans had to pay 
a high price for any further advances. Still they 
kept on, driving their men in great masses at the blue- 
and khaki-lined trenches before them. 

The German drive was intended to capture Calais, 




Western Newspaper Union 

Field-Marshal Sir Douglas 
Haig 



HOLD THE FORT 317 

Dunkirk, and Boulogne, to destroy the left wing of 
the British army or to drive it into the sea. 

Finding the going in front of them somewhat slow, 
on April 17, the Germans made a surprise attack 
on the Belgians between Ypres and the sea. Their 
heavy massed formation plowed through to some 
depth, but the Belgians made a sharp counter- 
attack, drove some of the Germans into the over- 
flowed lands, ' and captured seven hundred others. 
No admittance along the line of the Yser ! 

Foiled here, the Germans made a determined attack 
south of Ypres, intending to encircle the city, and to 
pinch off the northern end of the line by getting in 
behind it. 

The first high ground to the west of the Wytschaete 
Ridge is known as Mont Kemmel. It is a' low hill", 
— not much more than a hummock, but it was of 
great importance in the eyes of both commanders. 
A French regiment, stationed on it, had been told 
to hold the hill at all costs. 

Once more, as on March 21 and April 9, the 
Germans were favored by a heavy fog. Under 
cover of this, they were able swiftly to" thrust 
a wedge between the British and the French. 

The garrison of Mont Kemmel found themselves 
suddenly cut off from their comrades and surrounded 
by Germans. They were summoned to surrender, 
but sent back a message of defiance. And now the 
German artillery had found the range and a rain of 
death fell upon the doomed regiment. 



318 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Picked German troops, including the Alpine Corps 
and the famous Bavarian " Jagers," were sent against 
them, only to be hurled, reeling back. Again the 
rain of shells and again the attack of the infantry. 
Precious hours were passing ; the whole German 
program was behind its schedule because of this 
one French regiment. They could not go on, leaving 
this hill still in the hands of the enemy. Morning 
wore into noon and noon into afternoon. Still 
little groups, intrenched at strategic points on the 
west side of the hill, were holding out. Finally, 
after one last rain of shells, the "Jagers" and Alpine 
Corps advanced once more to the assault. No shot 
greeted them as they swarmed up the slopes, as they 
descended the western side. The garrison of Mont 
Kemmel had perished to the last man. "Jusqu'au 
bout" the phrase of the old Gallieni, had become 
the motto of the whole French army ! Ther- 
mopylae had its messenger of death, but Mont 
Kemmel had none. 

Meanwhile, the reserves were gathering. Kemmel 
was taken on April 26. On the 29th, the entire 
Fourth and Sixth Armies of Germany, under the 
command of General von Arnim, made a strenuous 
attempt to advance along a twelve-mile front from 
Meteren northeast to Zillbeke Lake. 

It resulted in a bloody, crushing defeat. A few 
small gains were made by the Germans, while the 
loss of life was tremendous. Everywhere the trium- 
phant British and French flung back the invaders, 



HOLD THE FORT 319 

and when night fell, Von Arnim drew off his battered 
divisions and gave up the attempt. The great drive 
for the Channel ports was over, and the Germans 
had gained twelve miles instead of the forty-five that 
they had planned. 

About this time came the word of a valorous exploit 
of certain Italian sailors, which cheered the Allies 
and did much to keep up the pride of the Italians 
in their fighting men. In December, 191 7, Lieuten- 
ant Rizzo (rit'so) of the Italian navy had slipped 
across the head of the Adriatic Sea with two tiny 
launches, to enter, if possible, the harbor of Trieste. 
The entrance to this port has three great stone 
piers, jutting out to the sea, forming two channels, 
one on each side of the central breakwater or mole. 
These channels were closed by nets and booms, all 
full of mines, and all secured to the piers by great 
steel cables. Lieutenant Rizzo and his men crawled 
out of their launches, up on one of the piers, and set 
to work, swiftly but silently, to cut the cables, strand 
by strand. It was hazardous work, for the least jar 
to the booms would have set off one of the mines 
and the whole party would have been blown to bits. 
Eight cables, one after another, were severed, until 
the weight of the mines broke the last remaining 
strands and the whole web of steel and mines fell apart 
and dropped to the bottom. The harbor was open to 
them. Slipping in silently, each of the two launches 
sought a battleship, and, at a signal from Rizzo, 
each boat discharged two torpedoes at its victim, 



320 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

then turned and dashed for open sea. Behind them 
came the roar of an explosion and a burst of flame — 
then another, as the second ship was struck. Wild 
cries, wilder firing, and confusion in their wake. Back, 
unscathed, came the two little Italian launches ; 
and the news soon spread that the Austrian battle- 
ship, Wien (veen), lay at the bottom of the harbor, 
while her sister ship, the Monarch, although still afloat, 
was seriously disabled. 

On May 14, Rizzo, now Captain Rizzo, dupli- 
cated this trick. Entering the harbor of Pola in like 
fashion, he sent to the bottom one of Austria's 
newest dreadnoughts and returned unscathed. One 
would have thought that two such exploits would 
have been enough glory for one man. But Rizzo 
was determined to put out of commission the whole 
Austrian battleship fleet. On the tenth of June, 
scouting in the Adriatic with two small torpedo 
boats, he met two of the three remaining dread- 
noughts of the Austrian navy. They were protected 
by the usual screen of destroyers, but this peril did 
not deter Rizzo. 

He slipped inside the ring of protecting boats and 
launched his swift torpedoes. One mighty vessel 
went down before his eyes, and while the other still 
floated as he sped for safety, wreckage from her was 
afterward found on the water. Four Austrian battle- 
ships had been sunk and another seriously damaged, 
and all by the daring and intelligence of a single man. 
All Italy rang with his praises, and the echoes came 



HOLD THE FORT 321 

back reassuringly among the Allies. Italy was 
herself again. Not only could she hold her own 
but she actually offered to send some divisions to 
help hold the hard-pressed western front. The 
offer was accepted, and now the men of five freedom- 
loving peoples were found facing the Junkers in 
France. 

There were signs that Ludendorff and Hinden- 
burg were soon to strike again, but there was much 
uncertainty as to where the blow would fall. For 
four weeks, since the bloody repulse of April 29, 
the Germans had been resting and refitting their 
troops. 

On May 27, the blow finally fell. A pretended 
attack was made in the north in the Lys valley, and 
another bombardment was begun near the Somme, 
but the spot where the great bulk of German troops 
had been secretly massed was on the heights north 
of the famous ridge of the Chemin des Dames. After 
a stupendous rain of gas shells and high explosives, 
twenty-five chosen divisions, over 300,000 men, 
were hurled in dense masses at the Allied lines. 
Only seven divisions were holding this portion of 
the trenches, four British and three French. There 
was no withstanding the gray-green flood. Four 
men to one, especially after the terrible rain of shells 
and poison, proved too great odds. But the Franco- 
British troops did not break, as Gough's army had, 
on March 21. They retreated in good order, sell- 
ing each position as dearly as possible. Here and 



322 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

there detachments turned and stood to the death. 
One large group, in particular, composed partly of 
Englishmen and partly of French regiments made up 
of the older men, resolved to hold a certain wood 
on the banks of the Aisne or die in the attempt. 
They died, almost to a man, but not until they had 
taken terrible toll of the advancing masses of Ger- 
mans. 

But, meanwhile, help was at hand. Foch may 
have been taken by surprise by the first attack, 
but he promptly took steps to reduce the German 
gains. He ordered his men to give way in the 
center, all the while stiffening the resistance of the 
sides. The attack began on a forty-mile front. 
The Germans crossed the Aisne, three miles to the 
south, on a front of eighteen miles. They reached 
the Marne, twenty-seven miles further south, on 
a front of six miles, and could go no farther. 

Thus they found themselves in a deep and 
dangerous pocket, the sides of which they attacked 
with furious energy, in order to widen it. Lu- 
dendorff threw more and more troops into the 
battle. Forty divisions all told were now engaged — 
more than 400,000 men. But try as he would, he 
could not widen the tip of the pocket. . At the top he 
was more successful. The city of Soissons fell into his 
hands, and he gained a strip of ground some six miles 
deep to the northwest of this city. The fifth great 
German drive of the spring was over. Ludendorff 
claimed forty thousand prisoners and more than four 



HOLD THE FORT 323 

hundred guns captured. But his losses had been 
appalling. The drive of April upon Arras and Vimy 
Ridge, and that of April 29 aimed at the hills 
southwest of Ypres, had cost him heavily, without 
yielding any gain in ground. This new attack had 
been the most costly drive so far. But, worst of 
all, its purpose had failed. In spite of the fact that 
the German trenches were now only forty-two miles 
from Paris, there was no sign of panic or pleading 
for peace on the part of France. The great long- 
range cannon had begun once more to rain shells on 
Paris. But Paris laughed and went about its busi- 
ness. The French treated the long-range gun as it 
deserved, as a stage bugaboo intended to frighten 
the weak-spirited. 

Ludendorff confesses, in his book, that he looked 
forward eagerly to the meeting of the French 
Chamber of Deputies (Congress) the first week in 
June, hoping to hear demands for peace. His 
heart sank as he read that the old " Tiger," the 
fighting prime minister, Clemenceau, had mounted 
the platform and, amid the cheers of the deputies, 
declared, "We are giving ground, but we shall 
never surrender." Two other statements of his 
that caused LudendorfFs hopes to sink were: "We 
shall be victorious, if the public authorities are 
equal to their task," and "I fight before Paris, 
I shall fight in Paris, and I shall fight behind Paris." 
The Germans had been strai-ning every nerve to take 
the French capital, and generals and men alike had 



324 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

persuaded themselves that, once in the city, the 
French government would have to sue for peace. 

This speech of the aged prime minister showed 
them that they had a long, hard task before them, 
and that France was far from that readiness to give 
up which they had pictured to themselves. 

Meanwhile, the Germans had every available man 
in the field. They still outnumbered the Allies, but 
their superiority in numbers was lessening with every 
week that passed by. Britain was withdrawing 
men from Egypt, from Palestine, from Salonica. 
The munition factories were being combed for 
recruits, whose places were taken by women. The 
young men of the next age to be called in France were 
ready to appear on the firing line. But these gains, 
important as they were, were nothing compared with 
the stream of young Americans, crossing the sea in an 
ever increasing flood. A quarter of a million of them 
crossed in May ; a still larger number were to reach 
France in June. 

The German High Command had scoffed at the 
Americans. The German people had been told 
that they would not fight. In the first place, they 
had no officers to lead them. It had taken years 
of careful training to make the German army what 
it was, and now, after four years of fighting, they 
had not enough officers of intelligence left to com- 
mand the various companies, battalions, and regi- 
ments. The old Von Moltke, German commander- 
in-chief in the wars of 1866 and 1870, had loftily 



HOLD THE FORT 325 

remarked that he had not studied the battles of the 
American Civil War, because he was "not interested 
in the conflicts of armed mobs." 

But on May 28, 191 8, the day after the great 
drive began at the Chemin des Dames, the Germans 
had their first taste of American fighting. Oh the 
western edge of the territory captured by the Ger- 
mans in the great drive of March 2 1 lay the little 
town of Cantigny (cantin'yi)- Its possession by the 
Germans was an annoyance to the Allies, as it was 
situated on a hill from which the enemy could control 
the valleys on either side. It was decided to let the 
American First Division have its "baptism of fire" by 
retaking this town. The attack was carefully re- 
hearsed beforehand and each company knew just what 
it was expected to do. Promptly at the appointed 
time the boys from overseas went "over the top." 
The Germans were taken by surprise but fought 
stoutly. In just thirty-five minutes, however, from 
the time when they started over, the Americans had 
the town. It was a fierce hand-to-hand fight with 
bayonet, hand grenade, and trench knife. Prisoners 
were sent back, and the attacking waves moved on. 
A mile forward they moved, then halted according 
to orders, and dug in, awaiting the counter-attacks, 
which came, thick and fast. But the "Yanks" held 
their ground and were a good match for the Kaiser's 
veterans. 

The First Division had "made good." Meanwhile 
the Second Division (which contained the Marines) 



326 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

with parts of the Third and Twenty-Eighth had been 
thrown into the battle for the road to Paris. 

The Germans had reached the Marne at Chateau- 
Thierry and were attempting to force their way 
westward when the American troops struck them. 
The official report of the fight, as given by the French 
war office, is as follows : 

"American troops checked German advanced 
forces which were seeking to penetrate Neuilly 
Wood, and by a magnificent counter-attack hurled 
back the Germans north of this wood. 

"Further south the Germans were not able to 
make any gains. On the Marne front an enemy 
regiment which had crept across to the left bank of 
the river was counter-attacked by French and 
American troops and hurled back to the other bank, 
after having suffered heavy losses." 

No bluster or boasting about these French official 
communiques. Just the plain, unvarnished facts. 
If the French government bulletin said that it was 
a magnificent counter-attack, we can rest assured 
that it was. 

As a matter of fact the Second Division, ordered to 
stop the rush of six Prussian divisions, did not wait 
for the enemy to come. They climbed out of their 
trenches and ran for the foe, straight across the open ! 
The Germans numbered perhaps fifty thousand men, 
while the Americans were just about half as many. 
But the Prussians were weary with their long drive 
and with the strain of four years of war, and the 



HOLD THE FORT 327 

young men from the west were going into their first 
big battle. As a French general had remarked, 
sixty-five years before, of the British charge at Balak- 
lava (ba la kla' va) , ' ' It was magnificent , but it was not 
war." Not war, at least, as veterans fought it. If this 
had been a division of British or French, they would 
have known better than to charge across open 
ground at twice their number of the enemy. They 
would have dug in, taking advantage of every 
unevenness of the ground, and would have picked 
off the Germans as they advanced, holding each 
position as long as possible and retreating only if 
in danger of being overwhelmed by superior num- 
bers. 

But the very nerve and daring of the young 
Americans, foolhardy as it was, won them the 
victory. Seeing them come on in this fashion the 
Germans reasoned, in true German fashion, that of 
course there must be great numbers of reinforce- 
ments behind them ; if so, then they, the Germans, 
must be outnumbered. And they faltered, and 
halted ; the Marines fell upon them, like a pack 
of wildcats, although having suffered cruel losses 
in their advance. The Prussians stood and fought 
for a time, but the ferocity of the young Westerners 
was too much for them. They broke and fled. 

You are right, all-wise Kaiser ! And wise Hinden- 
burg and Ludendorff ! The Americans do not know 
the rules of war ! According to all the rules they 
should have been wiped out as they charged across 



328 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the open to meet your Prussians. But they do 
not know the danger, and they do not fear your 
men. 

The Second Division's blood was up. Not satisfied 
with stopping the German drive for Paris at this 
point, they took the offensive, two days later, June 
6, and advanced two miles toward Berlin. Their 
French comrades, taking fresh hope when they saw 
the fighting spirit of the newcomers, took the offensive 
with them. Between the two forces the Germans 
were chased out of Torcy, Bouresches, and two other 
small towns northwest of Chateau-Thierry. To the 
great astonishment of the French officers, the troops 
opposite them proved to be the famous Twenty- 
eighth and Fifth Guard Divisions, two of Hinden- 
burg's very best. When prisoners were questioned, 
it was found that orders had been given to stop the 
Americans at all costs. The Kaiser feared the effect 
on his people when it should leak out that these 
peaceful young Westerners could fight, after all. 

And now the German High Command prepared 
a new blow, the sixth drive, counting the two that 
had failed to gain. They had forced two great 
dents, each thirty miles deep, in the Allied lines. 
They now drove at the curve that connected these 
wedges, intending to break clear through the French 
lines, down to the valley of the Oise to Paris. With 
300,000 men, Ludendorff struck, on June 9, along 
a front of twenty-two miles, between Montdidier 
and Noyon. But this time Foch was prepared. For 



HOLD THE FORT 329 

some days the gathering of troops had been observed . 
There was not the same secrecy that had marked 
the attacks of March 21 and May 27. 

The French artillery was ready ; the gunners 
had the range ; and as the German hurricane of 
fire broke loose, it was answered by a storm nearly as 
great from the French guns. Then the artillery lifted 
its fire, and on came the gray-clad "storm troops." 
With deadly effect the French guns plowed and 
raked their ranks. No thinly held line to be stormed 
here ; no great outnumbering of the defenders. Pe- 
tain, who was in personal charge, yielded a little 
ground here and there, only to take it back from 
them by a skillful and unexpected counter attack. 
Plemont hill, overlooking Lassigny, was held by a 
determined French regiment, whose fire strewed its 
slopes with gray-clad bodies. Fourteen assaults were 
made upon it, and yet its defenders held out, 
though surrounded on all sides. Furiously Von Hutier 
drove on his men. The Americans were coming, and 
Paris must be reached and the war ended. By sheer 
weight of numbers he pushed the French back, in 
some places as much as seven miles. Once more, in a 
last attempt to frighten the people of Paris, the long- 
range gun fired its senseless shells. But on the 
eleventh, two days after the drive began, Petain 
gave Mangin permission to advance. In three bril- 
liant charges Mangin' s men won back part of the 
ground that they had lost. For three more days 
the lines seesawed back and forth. But in the end 



33° 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 




the French held their places and the extreme depth 
of the German gain was four or five miles. The road 
to Paris was firmly blocked. 



HOLD THE FORT 



33* 



Not satisfied with their gains of four days before, 
the Americans of the Second Division on June 10 
started forward again. For twenty-four hours their 
artillery rained shells on the important stronghold 
of Belleau (bel'lo') Wood, held in force by the crack 
Fifth Division of the German Guards. Then the Ma- 
rines went "over the top" 
and never stopped going 
till they had ' ' mopped 
up" the entire wood. It 
was filled with Germans, 
and from every tree and 
rock the Marines were met 
by a bitter fire from the 
machine guns. 

When the fight was over, 
and three hundred prison- 
ers had been brought in, 
one of their officers, asked 
what he thought of the 
Americans as fighters, re- 
plied that they fought as if they were crazy — 
or drunk. According to all the rules of war it should 
have been impossible to take the wood. 

The Second Division took it, though they paid 
a fearful price. On the maps of that part of France, 
you will look in vain for Belleau Wood. Out of 
recognition for one of the finest feats of the war, 
the grateful French nation has renamed it "The 
Wood of the Marine Brigade." 




General Mangin 



332 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. What was the object of the German drive through Armentieres ? 

2. Why was the drive of April 29 a failure? 

3. How were the Austrian harbors protected? 

4. How did the Germans take the Allies by surprise on May 27? 

5. Why did Ludendorff feel that his position after the drive of 
May 27 was not favorable? 

6. Why were the Germans so depressed at Clemenceau's speech ? 

7. How did the question of time affect the German chances of 
victory ? 

8. What was the chief source of Foch's steadily growing army? 

9. How did the First Division take Cantigny ? 

10. What did the Germans think of the way in which the Second 
Division fought ? 

1 1 . Why did the sixth German drive fail ? 

12. What was accomplished by the French counter-attacks? 



CHAPTER XIII 
The Beginning of the End 

The Italians bold. — The swollen river aids. — The Albanian cam- 
paign. — The situation in the Balkan States. — Three days in 
July (15 to 18). — More "nibbling" by the Allies. — The seventh 
great German drive and Foch's counter thrust. — The Marne 
pocket wiped out. — The British in the Lys valley. — The great 
blow of Rawlinson and Debeney. — The Czechs are recognized 
as a nation. — No food to be had from Russia. — The British 
in the Caspian oil fields. — Plumer strikes. 

It was an open secret that the German High 
Command had ordered the Austrians to make one 
more grand attempt to put Italy out of the war. 

At last they were ready. As Ludendorff realized 
that the road to Paris was blocked, he gave the word 
to the Austrians to advance. One army was to 
push down from the north on the eastern side of the 
Lago di (la/go di) Garda, while the main force was 
to sweep across the Piave River on the fifty-mile 
front from II Montello to the sea. There were at- 
tacks among the mountains and plateaus to the 
north, also. In fact, there was hardly a spot from 
the Lago di Garda eastward where the Austrians 
were not threatening to break through in force. 

On June 1 5 , along a ninety-seven-mile front, from the 
Asiago plateau to the sea, the main attack burst forth. 

333 



334 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

By sheer weight of numbers, after the manner of 
the German attack of March 2 1 , the Austrians forced 
their way across the Piave River in three places. In 
the mountains also there were spots where the Italian 
line showed signs of giving way. But some of the 
British and French troops that had been rushed into 
Italy to stop the great retreat of November, 191 7, 
were still available. They were flung into the fray 
between Monte Grappa and the Asiago plateau. The 
result was that the threatened break in the lines 
was prevented. 

On the third day of the attack the Austrians 
claimed the capture of 28,000 men and more than one 
hundred and fifty guns. But on the sixth day of 
the battle, with Austria-Hungary throwing every 
available man into the front lines, the Italians were 
still holding doggedly to their ground. Nowhere had 
the enemy forced their way more than two and a half 
miles across the river. 

In the neighborhood of II Montello, a long, low 
hill at the hinge of the line, where it turned aside 
from the Piave and ran up among the mountains, 
the defenders, by the sixth day of the battle, had 
actually pushed the enemy back of the line from 
which they began the attack. 

About this time, luck broke for the Allies, for al- 
most the first time during the war. Tremendous 
rains in the mountains swelled the Piave into a rush- 
ing torrent. Pontoon bridges, rafts, and boats, by 
means of which the Austrians had crossed, were 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 335 

swept away in great quantities. The enemy on the 
western bank could not receive help nor ammuni- 
tion nor food. They could not retreat.' British 
aviators, dropping tons of bombs, had destroyed the 
permanent bridges, seven in number, between Mon- 
tello and the delta. 

On the eighth day of the battle, General Diaz 
ordered his men forward all along the line. With 
wild energy the Italians flung themselves on the foe. 
By the tenth day no Austrians were left west of the 
Piave but the killed and prisoners. It is estimated 
that they had lost a quarter of a million men. 

The victorious Italians, not satisfied with restoring 
their former lines, made a vigorous attack on the 
Austrians in the delta of the Piave, land that had 
been held by the enemy since November, 191 7. 
In these bogs and swamps there was little chance to 
dig deep trenches. Instead, the enemy had pro- 
tected themselves by barbed- wire fences, entangled 
with brushwood. 

These proved obstacles very hard to break through. 
Finally, one picked regiment of daring Italians, 
providing themselves with long poles, made a rush 
on one of these barriers, vaulted over it, and planted 
their daggers in the bodies of the astonished Austrian 
machine gunners. The Austrians gave way and 
sought only to escape towards firm ground. 

By July 6 the great battle was over. Italy had 
not only won back all that she had lost in the be- 
ginning, on June 15, but had retaken the important 



336 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

delta of the river and dealt a stunning blow to the 
hopes of Austria and Germany. 

Far away to the south another little campaign 
began to worry the Central Powers. From the first 
arrival of their troops at Avlona, in Albania, the 
Italians had gradually extended their lines up into 
the mountains until they joined forces with the 
Salonica army. Thus the Allies now held a con- 
tinuous line across the peninsula, from the Adriatic 
to the ^Egean. Some 400,000 Italians with one 
French division formed the western wing of this line, 
100,000 Serbs the left center, 200,000 French and 
British the right center, while the new Greek army, 
200,000 strong, held the extreme right. The com- 
mander-in-chief was now General Franchet d'Esperey, 
one of Joflre's army leaders in the battle of the Marne, 
a cool-headed and skillful leader, one of France's 
best. Opposing them was the entire Bulgarian 
army, some 350,000 strong, several strong divisions 
of Austrians, numerous batteries of German artillery, 
and some 100,000 Turks. 

Up to the time when the new Greek army had 
been ready to join the Allies, there had been little 
progress made. The country through which the 
opposing lines of trenches ran was mountainous and 
easily defended. The Germans and their allies 
talked of it as a good joke that so many soldiers of 
the Entente were tied up, doing no good, at Salonica.. 
They spoke of Salonica as ■ ' the greatest internment 
camp" (camp for prisoners of war shut up by 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 337 

neutral governments) "in Europe." Now, however, 
as an echo to the Austrian attack in Italy came a 
swift thrust northward in Albania by the Italian 
troops, aided by a French division. From the 
Voyusa River, just northeast of Avlona, the Allies 
drove in toward the town of Berat, twenty miles 
away. On the nth of July, five days after the 
attack began, the Italians chased the Austrians out 
of Berat. Two days later the French had reached 
a point on the Devoli (dev 6 li) River eighteen miles 
northeast of this town. 

Reinforcements were hurriedly summoned by the 
Austrians. This Balkan activity would never do. 
As a matter of fact Bulgaria was growing colder 
toward the war with every week that passed. Prime 
Minister RadoslavofI (ra'do slav'off ) , friend of Ger- 
many, had been compelled to resign in June, and a 
new cabinet had been formed under the leadership 
of Malinoff (mali'noff), a statesman who, before 
Bulgaria's entry into the war, had been a friend of 
Russia and France. Among the members of the 
new cabinet was Liaptcheff (li ap'cheff ) , a firm 
friend of America. The Bulgarian front was the 
weak spot in the German suit of armor, and the 
Central Powers lost no time in reenforcing their 
troops in Albania, fearing the effect of a defeat here 
upon the spirit of their Bulgarian allies. 

But now, on the western front, Hindenburg and 
Ludendorff were preparing one more overwhelming 
blow, of the sort that had driven the Allies back for 



338 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

more than thirty miles, both on March .21 and 
May 27. 

The storm this time was due to burst on either side 
of the city of Rheims, the home of the beautiful old 
cathedral that the Germans had taken such pleasure 
in bombarding. 

There had been a direct attempt to carry the 
defenses of the city by storm on the 18th of June, 
but this had failed, with bloody losses, and Luden- 
dorfl, changing his tactics, now proposed to strike 
in behind from each side, and "pinch off" this 
prominent point in the French lines. 

For a month things had been going badly for the 
Kaiser's allies. Their big drives in Italy and at 
Rheims had failed utterly. In little operations, 
not large, but important, the soldiers of the Entente 
had been driving them out of points that were of 
great strategic value. The Americans, as we have 
already learned, had taken Cantigny. The French 
had driven the Germans across the little Avre brook. 
The British had forced them to retire across the Ancre, 
a little farther north. The Australians, with some 
American help, had celebrated the Fourth of July by 
taking the important village of Hamel. The Ameri- 
cans had captured the little town of Vaux, near 
Chateau- Thierry. The French, by a quick movement, 
had taken the town of Corey, southwest of Soissons. 
The British had pushed in the bottom of the pocket in 
the Lys valley. LudendorfT confesses in his book 
that he could not trust his soldiers in purely defensive 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



339 



warfare. They fought better when they were going 
forward, with the hope that one more big smash 
would break down the resistance of the French and 
win the war. 

On July 15, accordingly, one more titanic effort 
was made. From the bot- 
tom of the Marne pocket 
they struck eastward, 
across the river, with 
twenty-four divisions 
of shock troops. East of 
Rheims, along a thirty-mile 
front twenty fresh divisions 
drove into the French 
lines. Both attacks were 
begun by the usual terrific 
bombardment of big shells 
and poison gas. But Foch 
was waiting for them. 

His generals, Berthelot, southwest of Rheims, and 
Gouraud (goo ro') , the one-armed hero of the Dar- 
danelles, now commanding the Fourth Army east 
of Rheims, had their orders. 

Leaving only a few machine gunners to hold the 
front line trenches, they drew back the bulk of their 
forces two or three miles to the rear. The usual 
terrific storm of German shells and poison gas fell 
on the lines where the French armies were supposed 
to be. It fell on empty trenches. Gouraud, mean- 
while, learning on July 14, by a timely raid on the 




Photo by Underwood & Underwood 

General Gouraud 



340 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

enemy's lines, that the big attack was set for the 
next day, cut loose with his great guns before the 
Germans began, and did terrific damage to the closely 
packed storm battalions of the enemy. 

In fact, many of the crack divisions that were to 
rout Gouraud's line never reached the new trenches 
of the French. They were so savagely punished by 
the French guns that they were sent back and dis- 
banded. Their remnants were used to stop the gaps 
in other regiments. 

To the southwest of Rheims the enemy made more 
progress. Attacking on a twenty -mile front, they 
crossed the Marne and drove south and east of 
that river to a depth, in some places, of three miles. 
On the north bank of the river they gained about 
four miles in an easterly direction, toward the town 
of Epernay (a'pair'nay') • General Berthelot, who 
commanded the French here, had not been able to 
guess the exact time of the German attack, as had 
his friend and colleague, Gouraud. Nevertheless, he 
used the same tactics, leaving only a few chosen 
machine gunners to hold the front lines, while by 
drawing back the great bulk of his men he let the 
German artillery exhaust its efforts, shelling the empty 
trenches. 

The German plan had been to smash through on 
both sides of Rheims, making prisoners of the main 
part of Berthelot's and Gouraud's men, and then to 
throw back the French armies to the east upon 
Verdun and the Swiss border, capturing the bulk of 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



341 




French Official Photograph 

General Foch as He Appeared at the End of the War 

them and ending the resistance of France with one 
gigantic stroke. 

In the light of what they had done in March this 



342 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

did not seem impossible. But with characteristic 
German confidence in themselves and equally typical 
German contempt for their enemies, they had over- 
looked three or four things. 

First, they forgot that for many months Petain 
and Foch had been saving their men, refusing to be 
drawn into rash attacks, piling up for the final 
struggle a strong army of reserves. Second, owing 
to the fact that the Entente had been on the defensive 
for so long, they forgot that Foch had the reputation 
of being a master of attack, with a love of doing the 
unexpected. Third, in their eager intentness upon 
their own plans, they neglected to think that Foch 
might have a plan of his own. In their anxiety 
to land a knock-out blow upon his right, they forgot 
that he had a powerful punch in his left, and that 
he might strike them on that comparatively un- 
defended side. Fourth, they ignored the fact that 
there were now in France i ,100,000 young Americans, 
and that these men had already proved their game- 
ness and eagerness to fight. In fact, their very inex- 
perience and greenness in war gave them a reckless 
courage that was very disquieting to their German 
opponents. 

At all events Ludendorff and Hindenburg blun- 
dered. They made the same mistake that Von 
Moltke and Von Kluck had made four years before 
on that same field, when they swung eastward in 
pursuit of Joffre and left their right flank open to the 
attack of Manoury and of Gallieni's taxicab arm} 7 . 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



343 



On the 15th of July every German was sure of 
winning the war ; winning it, probably within a few 
days. On the 18th something happened that made 
them open their eyes 
to some disagreeable 
facts. 

What happened was 
this : 

Sure that Gouraud 
and Berthelot, without 
help, could hold back 
the new German smash, 
Foch had prepared a 
stroke of his own. The 
details had been care- 
fully planned by Petain 
and Fayolle, the second 
in command of the 
French armies, in con- 
sultation with Generals 
Mangin and Degoutte, who were to lead the assault. 
The finished plan had been laid before the com- 
mander-in-chief, who had given his approval. 

By July 17, two days after the German drive 
started, they had gained, as has been told, some two 
or three miles of ground across the Marne east of 
Jaulgonne (zhol'gon'), due largely to the fact that 
Berthelot' s men retired, under orders, to avoid the 
German storm of shells. Between Jaulgonne and 
Chateau-Thierry two American divisions, the Third 




General Degoutte 



344 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and Twenty-eighth, stood guard, together with some 
French troops. Here the Germans forced their 
way across the river, but the Americans, with some 
French help, fell upon them and drove them back, 
after fierce hand-to-hand fighting. The long-range 
bombardment of Paris was started once more, the 
Germans still feeling that they had the French on the 
run and that it would not take much to break their 
spirit. 

One division of the American army was with 
Gouraud, east of Rheims. Here the magnificent 
defense of the soldiers of the one-armed hero com- 
pletely shattered the German plans. Caught in 
their own trap, they felt that their only chance lay 
in pushing forward. 

But next morning, at a quarter to five, there sud- 
denly fell upon the west side of the Soissons-Cha- 
teau-Thierry-Rheims pocket the blow that was the 
beginning of the end. Out of the woods that 
stretched northward for nearly thirty miles from 
Chateau-Thierry to Soissons there struck like a thun- 
derbolt upon the unsuspecting Germans an army of 
400,000 men. About half of these were Americans, 
the First, Second, Third, Fourth, Twenty-sixth, 
Twenty-eighth, Thirty-second, and Forty-second Di- 
visions being engaged. The rest of the troops were 
among France's best, the famous Moroccan division 
fighting between two American regiments. 

Without any artillery preparation the troops 
moved forward, accompanied by tanks to break the 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 345 

German barbed wire. A rolling barrage of French 
shells went ahead of them. They found the most 
surprised crowd of Germans of the whole war, asleep, 
in many cases, when the tanks and the guns and the 
' ' Yanks " and the French burst in upon their slumbers. 
Confident that Foch would have to send every avail- 
able man to slow up the drives on either* side of 
Rheims, the Germans had thrown all their best 
troops into these attacks, leaving second class 
divisions, composed of older men, to hold the west 
side of the pocket. 

Through the great holes torn by the tanks in the 
barbed-wire defenses streamed the eager Americans 
and French, the former yelling like Indians, the 
latter no less keen, and both at work, grimly, with 
rifle and bayonet, cleaning up, taking prisoners, and 
capturing guns and great stores of supplies. 
Through the breaks in the line poured, too, the 
French cavalry, in action on horseback for the first 
time in many months. Eagerly they rode in pursuit 
of the fleeing Germans, sabering those who resisted, 
surrounding and herding in the prisoners. 

By noon the victorious advance of the olive-drab 
and pale blue had reached the line set for them to 
pause, but after a short rest to reform the rather 
scattered divisions, Mangin and Degoutte ordered 
them forward again. By this time his Serene 
Highness the Crown Prince, who was supposed to 
be in command of the attacking German armies, 
and Generals von Below, von Einem, and von 



346 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Mudra, who were the real commanders, learned that 
all was not well along the western side of the pocket. 
Reserves were hurled into the fight : — divisions that 
were to have followed up the successful drive across 
the Marne were faced hurriedly about and marched 
westward, and every nerve was strained to hold the 
pocket open. But Mangin's French and Americans 
drove on, gaining six, miles in two days' fighting, 
until they were held up at last, by great enemy 
reinforcements, just south of Soissons. Degoutte's 
men to the south met stiff er resistance, but managed 
to gain from three to four miles before they were 
forced, for the time being, to come to a halt. 

Seventeen thousand prisoners, three hundred and 
sixty guns, and great quantities of supplies fell into 
the hands of the Allies. 

Meanwhile, news had reached Berthelot of the 
victorious advance of his two colleagues. He im- 
mediately ordered his men to give up the defensive 
and to go forward, all along the line. His Italian 
regiments, aided by a British division, struck west 
from Rheims, recovering ground lost three days 
earlier, and threatening to break through, join 
Mangin, and thus trap the Germans in the south of 
the pocket. His French divisions drove the enemy 
before them, and on the next day not a German, 
save the dead and the prisoners, was left south of 
the Marne. 

Meanwhile, just as Joffre, at the. first battle of 
the Marne, had surprised the Germans by slipping 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



347 



a new army (that of Foch) into the center of the 
line, so now Foch flung the new army of De Mitry 
between Degoutte's Americans and Berthelot's 
French. On the other side of Rheims, Gouraud's 
men drove forward, and all along the eighty miles 



THE SECOND BATTLE OF THE MARNE 
JULY 18— AUGUST 1st, 1918 



Grand Pr^ 




>• Battle Line before the German Drive of May 27 
m* Battle Line between July 6th and July 15th 

g§ Ground gained by the Germans between July 15th and 18th 

^ ^ ^ ^ 4* Farthest advance of the Germans on July 18th 

IGround gained by the French and Americans on July 18th 

Ground regained by the French, British and Italians 
between July 18th and July 22nd 




of the sides of the pocket and for thirty miles east of 
it, raged the Second Battle of the Marne. 

Desperately the enemy sought to stave off the 
retreat that they dreaded. For over six months 
they had been moving forward, except for the small 
losses already mentioned. To retreat now would 
be to confess defeat. So every available man 
was thrown into the Marne pocket. As many as 
twenty-two divisions, over 200,000 men, were sent 



348 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

against Degoutte. But the French and Americans 
were not to be held back. On they drove. Jagers, 
Prussian Guards, the Kaiser's crack Brandenburgers, 
none could check them. 

By July 20 the Germans realized that the game 
was up, that they could not hold the line of the 
Marne. They began withdrawing rapidly from the 
south (bottom) of the pocket, all the while throwing 
every division available against the Allies in the 
neighborhood of Soissons and Rheims, in order to 
hold open the top of the trap until they had with- 
drawn all their men out of the bottom. 

They fought hard to hold a line running from 
Epieds (ep ya') to Ville-en-Tardenois (tard'nwa) , but 
the triumphant Allies, tasting victory for the first 
time in long months, drove on with a fury that could 
not be stopped. On the 25th of July strong counter- 
attacks, with fresh troops, were thrown against the 
eastern side of the diminishing pocket. They proved 
of no avail. 

Meanwhile, the enemy was frantically pulling back 
his guns and stores and blowing up heaps of shells 
to prevent their falling into the hands of the advanc- 
ing French and Americans. Nevertheless, by August 
1, the French official announcement told of 33,400 
prisoners bagged since July 15, and of the capture of 
great quantities of supplies. 

Next day the French retook Soissons. The pocket 
was gone. Instead of the deep loop to the south, 
with a front of eighty miles between Soissons and 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 349 

Rheims, there stretched a comparatively straight line 
of forty-five miles. It followed the little Vesle (vail) 
River which, six miles or so to the south, roughly 
paralleled the Aisne. The Marne had been left 
twenty-five miles to the rear. 

All over the Entente lands there burst forth a great 
chorus of rejoicing. The day for which the Allies 
had been waiting so long was come at last. For 
four long years that seemingly unbreakable barrier 
had stretched across from Switzerland to the sea. 
It had been broken by the Germans themselves in 
their desperate bid for victory in March. Once out 
of their deep, concrete-lined trenches and in the 
open field , numbers counted . Numbers were winning . 
But the superiority of numbers had passed to the 
other side. Ludendorfl had poured out his men 
recklessly in the spring, hoping to win the war 
before the Americans arrived. But now there were 
one million two hundred thousand Americans in 
France, and more were coming at the rate of ten thou- 
sand a day. Foch had waited his time ; and when 
his time came, he struck, — heavily, unexpectedly. 
On the 15th of July the Germans were certain of 
winning the war. On the 1 8th they knew that they 
could not win it. 

Meanwhile, Hindenburg and LudendorrT, aware 
for the first time of Foch's power, suddenly awoke 
to the meaning of the little advances and captures 
of strategic places that the Allies had been making 
in so many spots. The German troops were drawn 



3 So 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



back in several places where it was plain that an 
Allied advance would put them in danger This was 
on the 5th of August. On the 7th, Foch gave Sir 
Douglas Haig permission to advance in the Lys 
pocket. Striking north from the southern side the 
Britishers drove back the enemy for a mile on a front 
of more than five miles. 

This attack was severe enough to send German 
reserve divisions scurrying northward to the rescue. 

Meanwhile, the Crown Prince 
and his generals were fever- 
ishly fortifying the line of 
the Vesle River, from Sois- 
sons to Rheims, evidently 
convinced that Foch was 
going to try, now that he 
had them on the run, to 
shatter their front with one 
grand assault. But it was 
not Foch's plan to attack 
where it was expected. 
Shrewdly he had forced the 
enemy to reenforce their 
lines near Rheims and near 
Ypres. Meanwhile, he was preparing a blow, which, 
when it fell, proved the most damaging single stroke 
of the whole war. 

In the early dawn of August 8, the Fourth British 
Army under General Rawlinson and the First 
French Army under General Debeney (da'ben y) 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Rawlinson 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



351 



leaped from their trenches on a twenty-six-mile front, 
from Albert to Montdidier, and swept all before them. 
The morning was misty, like that of March 21, 
and the same advantage lay with the attacking 
forces, which took the 
Germans completely by 
surprise. Leading the 
way were hundreds of 
tanks, many of them of 
a new, smaller, speedy 
kind, which broke the 
German lines and then 
showed all the swift- 
ness of cavalry in pur- 
suit. Rawlinson's men, 
in some places, found 
whole companies of Ger- 
mans engaged in cutting 
the ripe wheat. 

The French, further 
south, had to cross the little Avre River under the 
fire of the enemy's guns, so did not make quite such 
rapid progress as their British comrades. However, 
the Allies could not be stopped. On drove the 
British ; on drove the French. By the second day 
Rawlinson had advanced as much as nine miles, 
in places, and was still going. On the third day 
Debeney broke the line of the Germans before him 
and pushed forward six miles. Huge gasoline 
tractors, dragging forward the heavy guns, followed, 




General Debeney 



352 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



while the relentless tanks in front kept up the 
pursuit. 

By this time the Germans from near-by regions 
were stripping their lines to bolster up the rapidly 

retreating armies of Von der 
Marwitz and Crown Prince 
Rupprecht of Bavaria. On 
the eleventh of August, the 
French Third Army, com- 
manded by General Humbert 
(um'bair), without any artil- 
lery preparation suddenly 
leaped forward and drove 
before it in confusion the 
weakened army of Von Hutier. 
Again the surprise was 
The fast little French tanks, like land 
cut through the German wire and 

In their 




General Humbert 



complete. 

battleships, 

plowed ahead through a sea of enemies. 

wake came Humbert's men, taking part in the first 

great offensive that had been permitted them since 

they stopped, with Mangin's fighters, the drive 

toward Paris on the 9th of June. 

The method of Ludendorff had been to strike one 
huge blow, battering down resistance by sheer force 
of numbers, drive as far as possible, then refit for 
several weeks in preparation for the next colossal 
effort. 

Foch, on the other hand, always chose to do the 
unlooked for. He struck invariably where no blow 



354 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



was expected. First Mangin and Degoutte attacked, 
then Berthelot, then, just as the enemy had gathered 
all his forces to meet these advances, there was a 
sudden stroke by the British in the Lys valley far to 
the north. One day more and the biggest surprise 




British Official Photograph 

German Prisoners Guarded by British " Tommies " 



of all — the blow of Debeney and Rawlinson — fell 
like a thunderbolt out of a clear sky. The enemy 
rushed to meet this threat, when lo ! Humbert struck 
and the whole western line of the enemy was 
threatened with being outflanked. 

In their retreat the Germans left behind them 
guns, rifles, and shells in enormous quantities. The 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 



355 



was 
that 



not viewed as a 
when the news of 



French cavalry pursuing, with the armored motor 
cars and tanks spread dismay and confusion every- 
where. LudendorfT, in his book, says that the retreat 
from the Marne pocket 
disaster in Germany, but 
the defeat of August 8-10 
was published, a great de- 
pression of spirit settled 
heavily upon the German 
people. 

Meanwhile, the Allies 
were slowly but surely 
undermining the tottery 
Hapsburg crown. Pro- 
fessor Thomas Masaryk 
(ma sa'rik) , leader of the 
Czechs, driven out of the 
country by Austria, had 
organized, first in America 
and then in France, a 
Czecho-Slovak National 

Council. This body of men, with Masaryk at their 
head, directed the Czechs and Slovaks who had sur- 
rendered to the Russians to make their way to the 
fighting fronts to join the forces fighting for their 
freedom. These gallant troops, when the Russians 
broke and ran in the summer of 191 7, had fought, 
according to their general, the famous BrusilofT, in a 
way to win the enthusiastic admiration of the world. 
Surrounded in Russia by treacherous Bolshevist 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Professor Thomas G. Masaryk 



356 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

soldiers, who tried to wheedle them into surrender- 
ing their arms, and by former German prisoners 
who finally fired upon them, as they were taking 
trains for the East over the Siberian railroad, they 
had fought off both bodies of Enemies. They had 
held the entire five thousand miles of the railroad, 
and made their way back in great numbers across 
Siberia, the Pacific Ocean, America, and the Atlantic, 
to the western fighting fronts. 

The Czech members of the Austrian Congress, 
as early as May, 191 7, had openly declared to that 
body that their people and their cousins, the Slovaks, 
intended to form an independent state. Another 
new state was also coming into being, about this 
time. Representatives of the oppressed Croats and 
Serbs of Hungary and Bosnia and the equally down- 
trodden Slovenians of Austria had met with Serbians 
and Montenegrins to proclaim to the world their in- 
tention of forming the "Kingdom of the Serbs, 
Croats, and Slovenes." These peoples, closely akin, 
and speaking languages almost identical, are fre- 
quently spoken of as the Jugo- Slavs, from the word 
jugo in their own language, meaning south. 

In the spring of 191 8, representatives of these 
South Slavs met the Czechs and Slovaks in Prague, 
capital of Bohemia, which is the country of the 
Czechs, and swore to fight together to win their in- 
dependence from the oppressive rule of Austria- 
Hungary and of the House of Hapsburg. 

And now France first, and then Great Britain, 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 357 

on August 13, recognized the Czecho-Slovak nation 
as an independent country and an ally in the war. 
The United States did the same on September 2. 
Czecho-Slovak troops fought under their own red and 
white banner in France, in Italy, and in Russia. Their 
National Council, all exiles, met in Paris. Is it any 
wonder that dissension and revolt grew more and 
more threatening in the ill-fated empire of Kaiser 
Karl? 

The German plans for plundering Russia were not 
working out as intended. To begin with, the great 
stores of wheat that they had expected to find in 
the Ukraine could not be found. As a matter of 
fact, very little wheat had been planted during 191 7. 
The Russians and Ukrainians, rejoicing in their 
new-found freedom, had been too lazy and indifferent, 
or too busy plundering the homes of the rich, to 
think of doing the usual hard work on the farms. 
Each peasant raised just what his own family needed. 
The city folks could go without ; he did not care 
about them. They were parasites, anyway ; he 
had always had to feed them ; now let them go 
hungry. So the Germans found little or no 
wheat. 

Another great need of the Central Powers, gaso- 
line, was to be met by German capture of the Russian 
oil fields around the Caspian Sea. But to the 
astonishment of the world, a force of British cavalry, 
setting out from the Tigris army north of Bagdad, 
made their way across country, through mountains 



358 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and passes, to Baku on the Caspian. Great Britain 
would hold the oil fields against the Germans. 

It will be recalled that the Lys pocket was formed 
by the big German drive during the second and 
third weeks in April, when Haig issued his famous 
"backs to the wall" order. The plan had been to 
break clear through to the coast, and its failure left 
the Germans in a deep and narrow angle from which 
they would have been very glad to extricate their 
troops, without serious loss, had they been able to 
do so. 

On August 1 8 Sir Herbert Plumer, Haig's brilliant 
assistant, flung his Second British Army suddenly 
forward along a line of seven miles. In two days 
time his men had driven the Germans back several 
miles, had taken a thousand prisoners and many 
machine guns. Wherever Foch struck now, the re- 
sult was the«same: the Germans, their hope of final 
victory gone, resisted desperately, but despondently. 
The end was coming, and they knew it. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. What was the purpose of the Austrian attack on Italy? 

2. How did rains aid the Italians ? 

3. What was the result of the attempt to break the Italian army? 

4. What political change had taken place in Bulgaria? 

5. What was the German plan in the attack of July 15 ? 

6. What was the meaning of the little successes of the Allies ? 

7. How did Gouraud defeat the German drive? 

8. How did Foch take the Germans by surprise? 

9. Why did the Germans narrowly escape a great disaster in the 
Marne pocket? 



THE BEGINNING OF THE END 3S9 

of The IZ ^ the SeC ° nd Battle ° f the Marne the *«** point 

13. Out of what states was the new Jugo-Slav country formed? 



CHAPTER XIV 
From Victory to Victory 

From the 1914 trenches Mangin strikes for Lassigny, Byng for Albert. 

— The French at Noyon, the Americans at Juvigny, the British 
at Peronne. — Through the Hindenburg line at last. — Progress 
all along the line. — German gains of 191 8 wiped out. — Back 
on the Hindenburg line. — America alone at St. Mihiel. — The 
threat to the iron mines and the Sedan-Longuyon railway. 

— The Serbs' revenge at last. — Armageddon. — The end of 
five centuries of oppression. — Forward France and America. — 
Belgium's redemption begun. 

On the 19th of August the German armies stood 
on a line following, roughly, the old trenches of 191 6. 

With these deep, concrete-lined ditches still intact, 
it would look as if the soldiers of the Entente faced the 
same problem that had balked them through all the 
long months of the first two years of the war. Then 
it was only after a terrific effort that they had been 
able, about twice a year, to drive back the Germans 
only a mile or two on a short front. But now with 
tanks to break the way; with great guns a plenty 
and an unlimited quantity of big shells, the British, 
French, and Americans marched forward to their 
tasks with confidence. 

The French Tenth Army was the first to move. 

Before them was the formidable plateau of Lassigny, 

360 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 361 

which for two and a half years had been the German 
outpost nearest to Paris. On the other side of the 
Oise they had to scale another table-land, the top 
of which was fringed with German machine guns. 

With the same masterly skill that had marked his 
retaking of the Verdun forts in the fall of 191 6, 
General Mangin led his men up the slopes. Cover- 
ing his infantry by a rolling barrage from the big 
guns, and breaking the way with tanks, he took 
the plateau of Lassigny, recaptured the town, and 
scaled the heights between the Oise and the Aisne 
with astonishingly small losses. Ten thousand 
Germans were taken in this brilliant assault, and 
quantities of valuable material. 

This attack was still in progress, and Ludendorfl 
was rushing men to support this weak portion of the 
line, when another part of the front, quiet since 
May 1 , suddenly leaped into action. After a terrific 
bombardment for three hours, the British Third 
Army, under General Byng, struck, just north of 
Albert, on a front of seven miles. To the south of 
the town a smaller thrust was made, with the same 
result : a net gain of two miles in depth, the town re- 
captured, and several hundred prisoners taken. 

On the next day, when the enemy were expecting 
another drive either on the Champagne front or in the 
valley of the Lys, Foch surprised them by again 
hurling Humbert's Third Army forward. Mangin' s 
men, too, were under way, and the British drove in two 
more miles in the direction of Bapaume, the town 



362 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

toward which they had crawled by inches in the 
bloody, slow hammering of the summer and fall of 
1916. 

Desperately the Bavarian Crown Prince tried to 
stave them off, throwing in his best divisions to stem 
the tide. It was the same story : the Allies were not 
to be stopped ; the consciousness of defeat had 
entered the minds of the Germans at last, and some 
of them were surrendering, willingly. 

Hammer, hammer ! A blow here, a quick jolt 
there, a thrust yonder. The whole German line was 
being dislocated and hustled back in sections. So 
far, there was no clean break, but a series of jars and 
pushes, each alike vigorous and unexpected. 

It was on the 226. of August that the capture of 
Albert took place. Two days later the British 
struck again, this time a little to the south. The 
town of Bray and ten other ruined villages fell into 
their hands. The men were like schoolboys on 
a holiday. The long, long night of depression, 
defeat, and deadlock was over. They had "Fritz" 
on the run for Berlin at last, and they were going to 
keep him going. They cheered as they met other 
groups, and acted like different men from those who 
had retreated so sullenly over this same ground only 
five short months before. 

A stroke from the French and a sharp attack by 
the Americans on the Vesle, and another day had 
passed. Ludendorff and Hindenburg had told the 
Kaiser that they could not win the war. The best 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 363 

they could hope for now was a drawn battle, with 
both sides exhausted and ready for " peace without 
victory." 

But no such thoughts were on the other side. The 
magnificent old Tiger of France, Georges Clemen - 
ceau, the clear-thinking Foch, unterrified in the dark 
days of the spring and undeceived as to the enemy's 
condition now, were determined to rid the world, 
once and forever, of this menace of the Prussian 
saber. No less iron in their resolution were the fiery, 
buoyant little Welshman who ruled England, Lloyd- 
George, and our own inflexible leader, President 
Wilson. This war was going through to the finish. 

On drove the British, smashing all opposition. 
Twelve towns were taken on August 25, and in one 
place the gains took them within a mile of the old 
Hindenburg line, from which the enemy set out in 
the spring campaign. 

Still there was no rest for the bewildered Germans. 
Fortifying their lines before Roye for a frontal at- 
tack by the French, they found that Foch, who had 
a dislike of doing what the enemy expected him to 
do, was encircling them and threatening to cut off 
their retreat. Then followed a quick thrust from 
the north, and another from the south. General 
Debeney's First French Army closed in on Roye, 
and it fell. The victorious troops drove the enemy 
out of six more towns and captured the 19 14 trenches 
all along this part of the front. 

On the same day, August 27, their British comrades 



364 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

to the north drove forward. The Canadian corps, 
which had been helping the French in an attack 
just north of Roye only a few days before, was 
suddenly swung, miles to the north, upon the German 
lines at Monchy and Orange Hill. With them were 
some Scotch Highlanders, whose arrival was a tre- 
mendous surprise to the Germans, for they had 
thought that on that sector of the line they were 
safe from attack for the time being. On the next day 
there was another offensive and the main Hindenburg 
Line, just southeast of Arras, was badly dented for 
a distance of three or four miles. This position had 
been threatened in the fierce fighting of the spring 
of 191 7 and the Germans had built, as you have 
already read, a " switch line" from Queant to Dro- 
court, which was even stronger than the main system 
itself. When the British were attacking Gavrelle, 
Oppy, and Arleux so savagely, the Germans were 
ready to retire to the switch line. Now for the 
second time they had to take refuge behind it. 

Meanwhile, by a series of skillful dislocating 
thrusts, the First French Army had captured 
Chaulnes and was pushing the Germans back a 
distance of eight miles in some places. Forty ruined 
villages fell into their hands in the course of this 
drive. Some of the Germans still fought savagely, 
but the spirit was gone out of them, for they knew 
that victory was gone forever. On the next day the 
French took Noyon, while the pile of brick-colored 
dust that used to be the city of Bapaume fell into 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 365 

the hands of the British, for the second time within 
a year and a half. 

Smash, jolt, smash ! How Foch hustled them 
back ! Ludendorff never knew where the next blow 
was due to fall, for Foch behaved in the most erratic 
manner, sometimes striking several successive blows 
with the same army ; then again alternating and 
driving in regular rotation, with French, Americans, 
and British taking turns. 

The record of the next two weeks is one of un- 
interrupted successes for the Allies. 

The young Americans were in it, righting as part 
of the French Tenth Army under Mangin, and of 
the Sixth, under Degoutte. Both generals were 
enthusiastic in their praise of the fighting qualities 
of the men from overseas. Degoutte, in a general 
order issued on August 9, says that the Americans 
"have taken the most glorious part in the second 
battle of the Marne, rivaling the French troops in 
ardor and valor." It will be recalled, too, that 
these were some of the picked divisions of the whole 
French army. He goes on to say "These young 
divisions, who saw fire for the first time, have shown 
themselves worthy of the old war traditions of the 
regular army. They have had the same burning 
desire to fight the 'boche,' the same discipline which 
sees that the order given by their commander is 
always executed, whatever the difficulties to be 
overcome and the sacrifices to be suffered. 

"The magnificent results obtained" (the wiping 



366 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

out of the Marne pocket) " are due to the energy 
and the skill of the commanders ; to the bravery 
of the soldiers. I am proud to have commanded 
such troops." 

This report, of course, had to do with the fighting 
of the latter half of July. A month later we hear of 
the Americans again. The Twenty-eighth, Thirty- 
second, and Seventy-seventh Divisions were with 
Mangin in his drive north of Soissons, to clear the 
western end of the Chemin des Dames. 

On August 28 these forces took part in an im- 
portant attack on Juvigny. Their coming was a 
great surprise to the Germans, who had been facing 
French troops alone in this sector. One American 
force, sandwiched in between two famous French 
divisions, fought in a way to earn the high praise 
and admiration of the fighting Mangin. Finding 
strong German resistance in the shape of machine 
gun detachments ahead of them, they filtered through 
the woods, Indian fashion, and swooped down upon 
the astonished enemy from the west, capturing 
practically the entire group. 

For five days this division fought its way on, 
against the most stubborn and determined resistance. 
Four different German divisions were opposed to it 
in the course of this drive. (The German, French, 
and British divisions were only about half as large 
as ours — from ten to fourteen thousand men as 
against our twenty- six thousand.) 

The Yankee officers outguessed the Germans in 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 367 

one part of the fighting. It had been customary to 
"lay down a barrage" (that is, to send a curtain of 
exploding shells) ahead of an infantry attack. The 
Germans remained in their shelters during the 
American barrage fire, then, when it ceased, they 
came out into the open, expecting the infantry. 
But, when they were all out within range, instead 
of an infantry advance, here came another withering 
barrage, spreading death and disorder. A ' second 
time this happened ; and when the third barrage 
had ceased, the Germans were so demoralized that 
the on-coming Americans took them prisoners by the 
hundreds. 

At the end of the operation the towns of Juvigny, 
Terny, and Sorny were in the hands of the Americans, 
the end of the Chemin des Dames lay open to attack, 
and, twelve miles to the northeast, the twin spires 
of Laon (laon(g)') cathedral were visible from the 
Allied lines for the first time in many months. It 
had been a bloody, grueling fight against picked 
German troops who had been ordered to hold the 
position at all costs, but our men and their French 
comrades were not to be held back. 

September 1, a brilliant attack by the Australians 
took Mont St. Quentin and forced the Germans to 
get out of the ruins of Peronne. One Australian 
corporal, crawling through tall wheat, suddenly 
rose up with a bomb in his hand amidst thirteen 
Germans, and frightened them into surrendering. 

On September 2, the British marines and Lowland 



368 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Scotch troops of General Home's First ^British 
Army broke not only the main Hindenburg trench 
system but the famous Drocourt-Queant line be- 
hind it, driving ahead four miles in places. Next 
day they held Queant and thirteen other little 
towns that had been in German hands since 19 14. 
The fact that the ten thousand prisoners came from 
ten different German divisions, showed how hard the 
enemy had striven to hold this (to them) vitally im- 
portant position. 

In their retreat from the line gained during the . 
spring the Germans knew that they had behind 
them the old, but deep and serviceable trenches of 
1914-1915, where they would be safe for the time 
being. In retreating from this position they knew 
that their next stand could be made at the tre- 
mendously strong Hindenburg line. They had fallen 
back to this with a sense of relief, knowing that it 
had withstood the terrific hammering of the whole 
force of the French and British armies in the spring 
and summer of 191 7. 

They were confident that behind its deep trenches 
and its water defenses, a sure barrier to the tanks, 
they could hold out until the Allies grew tired of 
1 ' butting their heads against a stone wall ' ' and should 
agree to make peace on terms that would permit 
Germany to keep the plunder she had collected. 

It had been one thing for the British and French 
to break through the Albert- Montdidier position, 
not any too well fortified and with a desert ot 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 369 

plundered and wrecked territory behind it. But 
to smash through the Wotan (Queant-Drocourt) 
and Siegfried (Hindenburg) Lines, with their sys- 
tems of trenches miles deep, — that would be a very 
different matter. 

But to the consternation and dismay of the Ger- 
mans, the Canadians and Scots, after a heavy rain of 
big shells, followed their tanks through the Siegfried 
and Wotan lines with the same ease and confidence 
with which they had crushed the shallow trenches in 
the Lys pocket. 

Panic reigned at the German headquarters. Lu- 
dendorff and Hindenburg began the construction of a 
new defense system, the Hermann Line, they called 
it, which should run from the Dutch frontier just 
east of Bruges along the Ecloo Canal to the Lys, pass 
east of Courtrai and southwest of Valenciennes 
through LeCateau and Guise. 

They then began to withdraw their armies little 
by little behind the main Hindenburg or " Sieg- 
fried" position, helped on by the accommodating 
French, British, and Americans. The systematic 
destruction of all property that they could not carry 
away to Germany began once more. 

They wrecked all the coal mines of Lens so that 
it would take at least five years for the French to 
get them into working order again ; then they drew 
away from the town, leaving it full of poison gas. 

They retreated on a twenty-mile front along the 
Vesle, back to the Chemin des Dames again. The 



37© HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

gains made by the Americans in the west laid them 
open to the danger of an attack in the rear of the 
Vesle position. They retired, hotly pursued by the 
French, on a ninety-mile front extending northward 
from the Aisne to the break in the Hindenburg Line 
west of Cambrai. 

Systematic looting of the country was carried on as 
they withdrew. Just as an example of this — an 
order was found, left behind by the Germans in 
Noyon, telling the soldiers to collect all cushions 
and mattresses which were stuffed with wool. It 
was estimated that over ten thousand tons of this 
substance had been stolen from northern France in 
this way, and sent to Germany to be made into 
uniforms for the soldiers. 

Two pockets or salients, as they are called, which 
bent into the Allied lines, were to be emptied of 
Germans, and new lines built across the mouths, in 
order to shorten the fighting front and to release for 
service elsewhere the men that were needed to guard 
them. One was the pocket in the valley of the Lys, 
the other the deep salient east and southeast of 
Verdun, where the German lines cut the river Meuse 
at St. Mihiel. This angle had been thrust deeply into 
the French lines in September, 19 14, and all of 
Joffre's " nibbling" had been unable to wipe it out. 

Now it was decided that this should be the scene 
of the first great attack of the American army, 
fighting by itself and under the command of its own 
generals. 




Photo by H. Levy & Co. 



General Pershing 



372 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Orders had already been given to the German 
generals to draw their troops out of the pocket when, 
at one o'clock, on the morning of September 12, 
a terrific bombardment from all the big guns of the 
American army broke loose. At 5 a.m., after four 
hours of this hurricane of shells, the men went 
"over the top" on the south side of the angle and 
an hour later on the west side. 

The First, Second, Fifth, Forty-second, Eighty- 
second, Eighty-ninth, and Ninetieth attacked on the 
south, the Fourth and Twenty-sixth together with 
four divisions of French colonial troops on the west. 
All told the attacking forces numbered about 300,000 
men, while the Germans within the angle were 
about 80,000. Two Austrian divisions had been 
sent to support the weakening west front, so that 
the total number of the defenders was about 100,000. 

The plan was to drive in on both sides of the salient 
and meet in the middle, cutting off from retreat the 
entire German garrison. But the four hour rain of 
shells had given the Germans warning of what was 
coming. They had already planned to withdraw from 
the pocket, and were sure they would never be able 
to hold it against the coming attack. Therefore, 
while their best men were left to hold the lines of the 
sides as long as possible, the men from the tip of the 
pocket were drawn back with the greatest rapidity. 
It is estimated that they were escaping from the trap 
at the rate of about a thousand an hour when the 
attack of the "doughboys" and their French com- 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 373 

rades struck the front line trenches. The Germans 
had fortified these, through the four years' time they 
had held them, by every art known to war. 

Concrete and steel, barbed wire, "pill boxes," 
canals, and water ditches all were opposed to the 
on-coming troops. On the west the Fourth and 
Twenty- sixth Divisions and the French colonials had 
to climb the heights that paralleled the Meuse. 
These slopes, bristling with machine guns, had resisted 
all attempts of the French up to this time. The forts 
of Les Eparges, southeast of Verdun, like those of 
Brimont [bri / mon(g)], north of Rheims, had been a 
thorn in the side of the French, which for four years 
they had tried in vain to remove. 

There was slow progress on the west side. The 
best German troops were stationed here. On the south 
side the other American divisions, across the plain 
of the Woevre, made rapid progress. With hundreds 
of tanks breaking the way, they smashed through the 
German defenses, already greatly weakened by the 
terrific rain of shells that had preceded the attack. 
The First, Forty-second, Eighty-ninth, and Second 
Divisions, outnumbering the defenders about three to 
one, made short work of them. They drove ahead 
some six miles in the course of the day, capturing 
thousands of prisoners and great stores of provisions 
and guns. On the other side a dent some three 
miles deep had been driven in, St. Mihiel itself was 
in the hands of the French, and the whole front line 
trench system of the Germans had fallen. 



374 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

All through the night the tanks kept going, and 
the infantry followed, hot on their trail. 

At midnight the men from the west reached 
Vigneulles (vin yul')» and the mouth of the trap was 
only three miles wide. At three in the morning the 
men from the south also reached Vigneulles, and the 
pocket was closed ! 

All Germans and Austrians remaining west and 
south of this town were surrounded. Leaving the re- 
serve divisions, the Third, Thirty- third, Thirty-fifth, 
Seventy-eighth, Eightieth, and Ninety-first, to secure 
the prisoners and collect the booty, the others drove 
ahead. 

Ludendorfl was now thoroughly alarmed. He 
had planned to withdraw from the pocket in 
order to shorten his lines ; he no longer had men 
enough to hold the four hundred miles of front line 
trenches which stretched from Switzerland to the sea. 

The Americans were threatening to do more than 
take the pocket. They were within a mile or two 
of the German boundary line in places, and were 
drawing dangerously close to the iron mines of Briey 
(bri ay') . Half of these mines were in French 
territory and half in that part of France which had 
been forcibly taken by Germany in 1871. All had 
been in German hands for the entire four years of 
the war, and the metal taken from them was the 
greatest single factor in the manufacture of German 
guns and shells. In fact, it was claimed that if the 
Germans should be driven out of this iron district 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 375 

they could not keep up the war for more than three 
months longer. 

Then, too, the Americans were getting close to 
the main supply line of the German army. This 
was the railroad which ran just south of the north- 
eastern boundary of France. It passed through the 
French towns of Longuyon [long'i'on(g')], Sedan, and 
Mezieres (mez yair') . If this were cut the whole 
southeastern half of the German armies would be 
practically helpless. The only other line leading into 
Germany went through central Belgium to Liege and 
thus across the border. Between the two lay rough, 
hilly, wooded country, including the great forest of 
Ardennes (ar'den') , through which no railroads ran 
except one branch line which extended north and 
south. 

This Sedan- Longuyon railroad must be kept open 
at all costs, the Germans knew. The Briey iron 
mines must not be taken from them. The advance 
of the Americans threatened both. Therefore, 
Ludendorfl threw in his best reserve divisions 
and the great guns of the western forts around Metz 
began speaking, as they sent big shells into the 
American lines. We shall hear of this railroad again. 

The first big drive of the new army from overseas 
was finished. Nearly two hundred square miles of 
French soil was freed from the invaders. Over four 
hundred guns, some thousands of machine guns, 
and great quantities of supplies fell into the hands of 
the victors. 



376 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Of the 100,000 Germans and Austrians in the 
pocket about 70,000 escaped. Besides the killed 
and wounded their losses included about 20,000 un- 
wounded prisoners. The poor inhabitants of the 
region were frantic with joy when the Americans 
appeared among them. For four years they had 
been cut off from the outside world and had been 
robbed and starved. The little town of St. Mihiel 
had been forced to pay three million francs in 
money, to say nothing of the metals, wool, and food- 
stuffs that had been taken away. All the able- 
bodied men and boys had been carried off to work 
as slaves in the munition factories of Germany. The 
mayor of St. Mihiel declared to Mr. Baker, the 
American Secretary of War, who visited the re- 
deemed town on September 13, that the only thing 
that had kept many of his people from starving 
during the first two years of the war was the food 
distributed by the American Relief Committee. 

Meanwhile, other parts of the front were active. 
The French and British struck heavy blows at the 
Hindenburg Line on either side of St. Quentin and 
succeeded in denting it badly. Just as Germany 
was rushing her reserve troops to bolster up the 
Lorraine front, threatened by the Americans, and 
the Hindenburg Line, threatened by Rawlinson and 
Debeney, there came a loud cry for help in another 
quarter. 

The trenches that stretched across Albania and 
Macedonia, from the Adriatic to the ^Egean, had been 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 377 

very quiet of late. Following the drive of the French 
and Italians in July, came a short counter-attack 
by the Austrians, which had won back part of the 
lost ground, but after that there was inaction again. 
Then, suddenly, on September 16, with a roar of 
guns all along the line, from Avlona to Salonica, 
the Allied armies sprang into action. On the ex- 
treme east the British and Greeks attacked the 
trenches held by the Turks and the Second 
Bulgarian Army ; in the center the French and 
Serbs drove upon the First and Third Armies 
of the Bulgars, while in the west the Italians 
began a second time to push back their old-time 
foes, the Austrians. It was all rocky, mountain- 
ous country. The hills north of Monastir had been 
held by the Bulgars for three years, and they had 
had ample time to fortify the trenches here until they 
were almost impregnable. 

Great tunnels and caves had been hollowed out 
of the solid rock, from the openings of which machine 
gunners .sprayed death upon the advancing Serbs. 
But the Serb was reckless. In the trenches 
before him lay the men who had burned his home, 
slain his wife, and starved his children. All he 
craved was a chance to face a Bulgar with a weapon 
in his hand. 

Twice the Serbs charged up to the deadly openings 
in the stone. Twice they were sent reeling back. 
A third time they advanced, armed with hand 
grenades, which they threw, with deadly aim, at 



378 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



the openings in the rock. There were muffled ex- 
plosions, still more muffled cries, and then no more 
shots came. With fierce shouts the Serbs broke 




s w\\\ i . 



THE BREAKING OF THE BULGARIAN FRONT, SEPTEMBER, 1918 

A Austria- Hungary I 1 Rumania YMWWY/A Bulgaria I 



I Montenegro 



I ^ Rumania 

\////////,/A A lhnnAn. 



Serbia 
Turkey 



Territory given to Bulgaria by Turkey in order to induce Bulgaria to enter the war (October, 1915) 

i Battle Lines early in September, 1918 
Position of Allied armies at the time of Bulgaria's surrender 



through the Bulgar lines. The day of reckoning 
was come at last. With the pent-up hatred of five 
years burning in their souls, they fought like wild 
men. Once past the machine gun posts there was 
no stopping them. The First Bulgarian Army 
showed signs of breaking. Vigorously General 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 



379 



d'Esperey pressed them. His French veterans 
broke through by the side of the Serbs. The 
Bulgarians beat a hasty retreat. 

In two days the Serbs and French had advanced 
ten miles over most difficult country, and were gain- 
ing speed as they went. Four thousand prisoners 
were in their hands, and fifty big guns. The Second 
Bulgarian Army, finding its left flank exposed, and 
beginning to suffer in its 
turn from the blows of the 
Greeks and British, was 
forced to retreat. But the 
Serbs had cut all commu- 
nication among the three 
Bulgarian armies. One was 
being forced northeast- 
ward, the other two in a 
northwesterly direction. 
Tzar Ferdinand and his 
ministers in a panic ap- 
pealed to Berlin and Vi- 
enna for help. But help 
was not to be had. 

Close in the wake of 
the news of the Bulgarian defeat there came an- 
other message to Berlin which completed the misery 
of the Junker crowd. Turkey, too, was cracking 
apart. 

We left Sir Edmund Allenby just north of Jeru- 
salem, holding a line which stretched across forty 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Tzar Ferdinand of Bulgaria 



380 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

odd miles of country from the Mediterranean to the 
River Jordan. Beyond the Jordan were the forces 
of his ally, the Arab king of Hedjaz. Facing Allenby 
was a strong Turkish army of some 125,000 men, 
aided by some Germans, with German aviators in 
attendance, all under the command of the German 
Field Marshal Liman (li'man) von Sanders, who had 
been in Turkey for five years, drilling and preparing 
her armies for this war. 

The forces of General Allenby were larger than 
those of the enemy, but not overwhelmingly so. 
For months they had been able to hold him prac- 
tically motionless. Finally, however, he prepared 
a blow which he hoped would surprise the foe. 
Secretly he massed large forces of infantry and 
cavalry on his extreme left wing, along the Medi- 
terranean coast. Having gotten this force ready, 
he gathered his guns and opened a vigorous bom- 
bardment on the extreme right, near the Jordan 
River. The Turks, fearful of a break through here, 
rushed their reinforcements to the threatened spot. 

No sooner w T ere the Turkish reserves transferred 
to the east, than the troops concealed along the 
coast charged straight for the trenches of the enemy 
with a vigor that swept everything before them. The 
lines once broken, there streamed through the breach 
great bodies of cavalry, — Australians, Indians, 
British. 

Dashing down the coast, these magnificent troops 
cut across the line of the enemy's retreat on the plain 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 



38i 



of Armageddon. Meanwhile, the victorious infantry 
of the left wing had turned eastward and were swiftly 
rolling up the enemy's line. The only part of the 
Turkish trench 
system which 
held was the ex- 
treme left, along 
the river, but 
when the troops 
here learned that 
their line of sup- 
ply had been cut 
by the cavalry 
and that the right 
wing had given 
way completely, 
they, too, began a 
rapid retreat. 

What followed 
was the greatest 
military disaster 
that had hap- 
pened to any one 
army in the war 
up to that time. 
With the victori- 




Allenby's Victory over the Turks 



ous British pouring down upon them from the sea, 
with the Arabs swooping down upon any who crossed 
the river, with the cavalry cutting off their retreat, 
more than half the Turkish army found themselves 



382 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

hopelessly surrounded. More than 70,000 of them 
gave themselves up to the British, another 8000 fell into 
the hands of the Arabs, and the rest of the forces scat- 
tered, never to reunite. French sailors and marines, 
landing at Beirut, were wildly cheered by the inhabi- 
tants. The British were everywhere hailed as deliver- 
ers. The five hundred-year rule of oppression was 
over. Syria and Palestine were freed forever from 
the domination of "the unspeakable Turk." 

The latter half of September saw the crumbling 
of the German military empire in more places than 
one. 

Not only were the Bulgarian and Turkish armies 
rapidly going to pieces, but the great German army 
gave evidence of cracking under the strain. Having 
wiped out the three salients that the Germans had 
dug into the Allied lines in the spring (the one toward 
Amiens, the Lys valley, and the Soissons-Rheims 
pocket) Foch had dented the Hindenburg Line for 
two salients of his own, one made by the British in 
front of Cambrai and the other by the French and 
Americans north of Soissons. 

During the last week in September, Foch struck 
three blows which showed the strength of the Allied 
offensive and the weakening of the man-power of 
Germany. On the 26th, Gouraud's Fourth French 
Army suddenly struck northward in the Champagne 
district, and the First American Army, fresh from its 
victory at St. Mihiel, drove north from the Verdun 
front. Nine divisions, the Seventy -seventh, Twenty- 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 383 

eighth, Thirty-fifth, Ninety-first, Thirty-seventh, 
Seventy-ninth, Fourth, Eightieth, and Thirty-third, 
in. the order named, with the Thirty-third resting its 
flank on the River Meuse, went over the top. Along 
a front of twenty miles they charged trenches of the 
enemy which had been unchallenged for years, so 
impossible had it seemed to take them. Foch and 
Pershing had prepared a surprise party for the Ger- 
mans. The enemy had been expecting an attack 
upon the iron fields in the direction of Metz, and 
had massed some of their best troops to oppose it. 
Instead, the blow fell to the west, in sections that 
were thinly held. Only six German divisions, some 
70,000 men, stood in the path of the 230,000 Ameri- 
cans. In like manner Gouraud's French Army out- 
numbered the defenders five to two. By the close 
of the first day's fighting the French had gained 
from three to four miles, the Americans in some 
places as much as seven. 

Between the two armies lay the Argonne forest, 
the most difficult bit of territory on the whole 
western front. It consisted of a series of low hills 
cut by ravines with steep sides, the whole clothed 
with a dense growth of trees and underbrush. 
Shell fire had felled great numbers of the trees, 
and the whole forest had been crisscrossed with 
barbed wire and rabbit netting, with a German 
machine gun nest behind every fallen log. 

On either side of the forest the French and Ameri- 
cans made much more rapid progress than through 




Trenches and Barbed Wire 
384 



IN THE ARGONNE FOREST 



M. Branger 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 385 

it ; and the result was that the center of the wood 
was left, biting into the new line of the Allies, a 
deep salient, from the southern tip of which German 
guns were able to fire upon the rear of the troops 
that had passed farther northward. 

Major General Maurice, of the British Army, in 
his account of this battle says, "To clear these 
heights and enable the center to advance, the 
American left had to force its way forward through 
nine miles of the most difficult country on the whole 
western front. ... It was a question of hard, 
slogging infantry fighting, and the American in- 
fantryman did slog hard ; after eleven days of 
continuous, grim, slogged effort he won his way 
through." 

Eight thousand prisoners were taken in the first 
three days of the battle by the Americans alone. 
Then some of the best fighting divisions in the 
German army were thrown in, and the contest 
settled down to a hard, grueling, hand-to-hand 
struggle, with the "doughboys" pushing forward 
by inches through a zone of barbed- wire fences, 
ten feet apart, and four miles deep in places ; over 
great masonry walls, built out of solid concrete and 
steel, and across the tangled forest, with machine 
gunners sending their hail of death from every 
fallen tree. Badly as Ludendorff needed men in 
the other parts of the front, he threw in twenty-two 
divisions, after the first two days, with orders to 
stop the Americans at all costs. For the goal of the 



386 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Americans was the Sedan- Longuy on railroad, and 
once that was cut, half the munitions and supplies 
needed for the German armies could no longer be 
sent to the front. 

Meanwhile, on September 27, the British, on a 
front of fourteen miles, had attacked the Hindenburg 
Line in front of Cambrai. The Canal du Nord, the 
barrier that the Germans had counted on to stop 
the tanks, was crossed in force, and the main ''Sieg- 
fried" trench system was riddled in several places. 

On the next day the attack was continued, and good 
progress was made in the same direction. Foch was 
now attacking practically all along the line from 
Verdun to the sea, for the Americans, Gouraud, 
Berthelot, Mangin, Humbert, Debeney, Rawlinson, 
Byng, Home, and Birdwood (Gough's successor in 
command of the British Fifth Army) were all in 
action at once. 

To cap the climax and to complete the misery of 
the Germans, a new sector suddenly leaped into ac- 
tion. For four years the gallant little Belgian army 
had held the small fragment of their country between 
Ypres and the sea. It was only twenty-five miles 
long and ten deep, so that there was not a spot 
which could not be reached by the big German guns. 
But it was Belgium to them, a sacred soil never to 
be yielded. And now the time had come to begin 
the redemption of their country. 

On September 28, alongside the Second British 
Army of Sir Herbert Plumer, the troops of King 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 



387 





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Keystone View Co., Inc. 



Albert, King of the Belgians 



Albert swarmed over the German trenches on a ten- 
mile front between Dixmude and Ypres. Five 
miles deep they drove, capturing four thousand 
prisoners and great quantities of supplies. The next 



388 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



day further advances were made, more towns were 
freed and additional prisoners taken. Foch sent 
Degoutte with the Sixth French Army to join Plumer 
and King Albert, and the three armies began a for- 
ward movement which 
threatened to make short 
work of the Germans in 
Belgium. 

Wilhelm von Hohenzol- 
lern, All-Highest War Lord 
and Serene Majesty of 
Mittel-Europa, what would 
you not have given to 
exchange places, at this 
moment, with the man 
whom you had so cruelly 
wronged, the man whom 
you had pitied and des- 
pised all through these 
past four years, the king 
without a country whom you had kept in exile, but 
who now was to ride into his redeemed capital on 
the shoulders of his devoted men with the affectionate 
shouts of his people hailing his return — Albert of 
Belgium ? 




General Plumer 



QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 



i. Why did the Allies face a difficult task on August 19? 

2. Why was the progress of the Allies faster than in 1916? 

3. What was the hope of the Germans during the month of August ? 

4. How did the young Americans rank as fighters? 



FROM VICTORY TO VICTORY 3 8g 

5. What is meant by "laying down a barrage"? 

6. Why was the victory of General Home on September 2 so 
important ? 

7. Why did the Germans destroy the coal mines of France? 

8. Why had the Germans planned to withdraw from the St. 
Mihiel salient ? 

9. Why did the rapid gains of the Americans alarm Ludendorff? 

10. Why was the Briey district so important to the Germans? 

11. Why was the Sedan- Longuy on railroad so necessary to them? 

12. Why were the Serbs so eager to get at the Bulgars? 

13. Why could not Berlin and Vienna send help to Ferdinand? 

14. How did General Allenby outwit the Turks ? 

15. Why had there been no attacks on the enemy's trenches in 
the Argonne ? 

16. Why was it good strategy, late in September, to attack all 
along the line at the same time? 



CHAPTER XV 
The Home Fronts 

France, led by Clemenceau, vs. Bolo and Caillaux. — Pacifism and 
the Sinn Fein in the British Isles. — " General Apathy " is beaten at 
last. — The United States and the pro-German propaganda. — 
German-Americans at last in line. — The Committee on Public 
Information. — The Four Minute Speakers. — "No indemnities 
and no annexations." — Socialists deceived no longer. — The 
Pope's peace proposal and Wilson's answer. — Discord is sown in 
Germany. — Lies to the German people are gradually uncovered. 
— German terms of peace in June. — Kaiser Karl and his letter 
to Prince Sixtus. — Lichnowsky and Muehlon. — Propaganda : 
truth vs. fiction. — Advertising Allied successes. — The feelings 
of the Bulgarian people. — The war-sick Turks. — The Austro- 
Hungarian state a mass of discord. 

It was no less a personage than Field Marshal 
Paul von Hindenburg und von Beneckendorff who 
had said that the war would be won by the nation 
with the strongest nerves. Of course he believed 
that this nation would be Germany, but the result 
proved otherwise. For when it came to the crisis, 
and cold, disquieting, unnerving, and disheartening 
facts had to be faced, it was the spirit of the German 
people that cracked, while France and Britain 
stood the strain and pulled through. 

But it had been a battle. The war was won no 
more upon the fighting lines than upon the home 

390 



THE HOME FRONTS 391 

fronts. And Lloyd George and Clemenceau were 
the generals to whom no less than to Foch, Petain, 
Haig, and Pershing, belongs the glory of the victory. 

In France, to begin with, there were seeds of 
dissension. Instead of two or three principal 
political parties, her lawmakers were divided among 
a dozen, and her prime ministers always had a hard 
time adjusting their many differences. The leader 
of the opposition, the man who had wrecked more 
ministries than any other French statesman, was 
Georges Clemenceau, the "Tiger," as he was called, 
a clear-thinking, obstinate, quick-witted, eloquent 
old fighter, who hated all sham and hypocrisy. 
He had been prime minister himself from 1906 to 
1909, but he found the task of tearing down the weak 
acts of others more to his liking than trying to 
lead the discordant parties of the French Congress. 

As early as 1871, when he was thirty years old, 
he had been the leader of those members of the law- 
making body who refused to vote for the treaty 
of peace with Germany because it forced France 
to give up Alsace and Lorraine. From that time 
on, men had had cause to fear his biting tongue, 
his clear brain, and his fearless pen. As editor 
of VHomme Libre (the Free Man) he wielded 
a big influence throughout France. In the early 
days of the war his paper had been ordered dis- 
continued on account of his bitter criticism of the 
government ; whereupon he had promptly brought 
out a new paper which he named VHomme 



392 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Enchaine (the Chained Man) in which he kept up 
the same attacks. 

Another prominent figure in France, a man who 
had a powerful influence among certain classes, 
was a second ex-prime minister, Joseph Caillaux. 
A man of undoubted genius, he was very ambitious 
for power, wealth, and social prominence, although 
he had risen to high position by the votes of the 
radical Socialists. In 1914, just before the war, 
Gaston Calmette, editor of the Paris Figaro, had 
attacked Caillaux in his paper, accusing him of 
political dishonesty and of aiming at a dictatorship. 
Whereupon Caillaux' s wife had walked into 
Calmette 's office and shot the editor dead. A jury 
had acquitted Madame Caillaux, who claimed that 
Calmette was about to injure her reputation. But 
a suspicion remained that Calmette really knew 
some discreditable facts about the ex-Premier, and 
that it was to stop his pen that Caillaux, trusting 
a French jury to take a woman's part, had sent his 
wife to do the deed. When the war broke out 
Caillaux was given an office in the army Pay- 
master's Department, but some dishonesty on his 
part was discovered. He was forced to serve a term 
in prison, and came out more embittered than ever 
against the government. He sailed for the Argentine 
Republic, where he visited the famous Count von 
Luxburg, the German minister. Just what passed 
between them is not fully known, but it certainly 
boded no good for Britain, nor in truth, for France. 



THE HOME FRONTS 393 

The American Secretary of State, Mr. Lansing, 
gave the French government some of Luxburg's 
telegrams in which there were complimentary words 
about Caillaux, and orders to German submarine 
commanders to treat him most kindly, in case they 
should capture and sink the vessel which was carry- 
ing him back to France. 

Caillaux, upon his return, visited Italy, and was 
soon found to be plotting with certain Italians who 
were suspected of being pro- German. 

About the same time it was learned that a certain 
Paul Bolo, a rather poor man, had been spending 
large sums of money to get control of some Parisian 
newspapers. He bought the Paris Journal from 
Senator Humbert, he paid thousands of dollars 
for shares of stock in Le Rappel, another leading 
paper, and even tried to buy V Homme Enchaine. 
Three other smaller papers he bought outright. 
The government wished to know the source of his 
money. The answer came finally, but not until 
after a diligent and vigorous campaign by the 
French government against all traitors and "de- 
featists" (advocates of peace without victory). 

It was proved that the Deutsche (doit'sha) Bank 
of Berlin had deposited more than a million and a 
half dollars in New York for Bolo to use in buying 
up French newspapers. These newspapers were to 
criticize the French government and army ; sow dis- 
trust of Great Britain and Italy in the minds of the 
French people ; persuade them that a separate peace 



394 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

with Germany would be a good thing ; prove that 
it was impossible to win the war by righting ; and in 
general, to undermine the courage and spirit of the 
nation. 

The ministry of Ribot fell, and Professor Painleve 
took Ribot' s place as premier. But L. J. Malvy, a 
close friend and follower of Caillaux, was kept as 
Minister of the Interior. 

A certain paper called the Bonnet Rouge (Red 
Cap), which had often been used by Caillaux in 
former times, was found by the Intelligence Depart- 
ment of the Army to be spreading seditious matter 
among the soldiers. The editor, a Spaniard, was 
clapped into prison. He promised to make a full 
confession, but before he could make it, was found 
dead in his cell. Again it was felt that the hand 
of Caillaux was at work. 

Because the Painleve ministry failed to take 
energetic measures against this kind of treason, the 
lawmakers voted it out of power. The seventy- 
six year old "Tiger" was called upon by his former 
enemies, including the Monarchists and Clericals, 
to step into the breach and to save the nation. 

Promptly he responded and decisively he acted. 
Malvy was deprived of his office and sentenced to 
two years' banishment from France. Caillaux and 
Senator Humbert were arrested and thrown into 
jail to await trial for treason. Bolo and a man 
named Duval, who was proved to have taken Ger- 
man money to spread treasonable talk among 



THE HOME FRONTS 395 

French newspapers, were tried, condemned, and 
compelled to face a firing squad of soldiers. The 
forces of treason were throttled. France had won 
her battle, and the home front stood, unbroken. 

Britain, too, had her battle at home to fight. 
There were strong parties among her citizens who 
felt that war was too horrible and too cruel a manner 
of settling quarrels between nations. At the very 
outset of the struggle, in the first week of August, 
1 914, Lord John Morley and the well-known labor 
leader, John Burns, resigned from the cabinet rather 
than be held responsible for any part in "the war. 

These were honest, sincere men. Before long 
both had come to see that the Junker government 
of Germany was a menace to the peace of the world 
which could only be removed by an overdose of 
its own medicine, — brutal, destructive, savage war. 
Our own President Wilson, who had clung to peace 
as long as possible, even to the extent of bringing 
on himself and the nation scorn and contempt from 
some Europeans, when he fully understood the 
question at issue, told the Central Powers that the 
answer to their acts should be "force without stint, 
force to the utmost," force which should finally 
bring the Junkers to their knees and leave them 
powerless to disturb the peace of the world. 

However, there remained in Great Britain a strong 
body of "conscientious objectors" to war, whose 
attitude gave great "aid and comfort" to the enemy. 
The Irish society, Sinn Fein (shin fane), was a source 



396 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

of trouble. In the spring of 191 6 these people 
started ' an outbreak in the city of Dublin which 
resulted in several days of rioting and caused nu- 
merous deaths in that city. 

It was proved that the plot had been hatched in 
Germany by an Irishman named Sir Roger Case- 
ment. Ireland at the same time was being flooded 
with German propaganda. Casement was landed 
from a German submarine upon the coast of Ireland, 
but was caught by the British and put to death 
as the prime mover in the rebellion. 

Great Britain endeavored not to provoke the 
Irish after this. When the draft law which com- 
pelled able-bodied young men to serve in the army 
was finally passed, they exempted Ireland, making 
it apply only to England, Scotland, and Wales. 

Meanwhile, there were hundreds of thousands of 
the finest young men of Ireland serving of their 
own free will in the British armies. There were no 
better fighters than the men of the Irish regiments. 
The first man to win the Victoria Cross in the great 
war was Sergeant O'Leary, who killed six Germans 
single handed. Ireland too did more than her share 
of the raising of foodstuffs to feed England. 

One Englishman made the remark that the best 
general fighting on the side of the Germans was in 
Great Britain, and that his name was General 
Apathy. By this he meant, that the British people 
were a long time in being waked up to what the war 
meant, and in really getting down to business in 



THE HOME FRONTS 397 

striving to win it. But soon came the shelling of 
the defenseless coast towns by German ships and 
the brutal killing of women and children by the 
bombs of German Zeppelins. The British woke 
up ; their anger was slow in mounting, but once up, 
it would not go down until punishment was brought 
upon those who would do these things. 

The United States, too, was having its battle on 
the home front. There were more Germans among 
our citizens than foreigners of any other blood. 
According to the census of 19 10, eight and a half 
million people in the United States had either been 
born in Germany or were children of German 
immigrants. The famous Delbruck law, passed by the 
Reichstag, made it possible for a German to remain a 
subject of the Kaiser even though he formally took 
out naturalization papers in some other country. 

There had been a systematic plan on the part of 
Germany to cultivate the friendship of the United 
States. The visit of Prince Henry, brother of the 
Kaiser, in 1904, the scheme by which German and 
American universities exchanged professors at regular 
times — all were part of the ' ' propaganda ' ' sent 
out by the court at Potsdam to curry favor in 
America. 

To our shame be it said, there were villages in 
the United States where young men, born in this 
country, were unable to speak a sentence in the 
English language. These were not always German 
villages, either. There were other groups of immi- 



398 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

grants who had been allowed to retain their Old 
World language, their private schools taught in that 
language, and a European attitude toward everything. 

Some of our politicians were so afraid of losing the 
votes of these people that they had been allowed to 
set up a little Germany, a little Hungary, or a little 
Poland, as the case might be, right in the midst of 
American institutions. 

Some of these citizens of the United States, how- 
ever, who were loudest in their praise of Germany, 
during the early years of the war, were not foreigners 
by birth, but sons and daughters of immigrants. 
The older generation, who had fled away from the 
old country to escape the military service and the 
lack of freedom, or the arrogance of the Junkers, 
were not so zealous in the Kaiser's cause as their 
sons, who had never seen Germany. 

To keep up this feeling among the German- 
Americans, millions of dollars were spent by the 
Berlin government. Speakers were hired to tour 
the country, books were given away, newspapers 
were bought, and weekly and monthly magazines 
were organized. 

But little by . little our Americans with German 
blood in their veins began to see. the light. The 
sinking of the Lusitania converted some of them, 
the unrestricted submarine campaign, some, and the 
publication of the Zimmermann note (see page 212) 
turned thousands of others against Germany. By 
April, 191 7, when we formally declared war, the great 



THE HOME FRONTS 399 

bulk of German-Americans were enlisted on the side 
of the United States. 

Still the battle of the home fronts was not over. 
The majority of those who at heart were pro- German 
still kept very, very still. Nevertheless, a small but 
dangerous minority went about the country doing all 
the mischief possible. The explosion of bombs in mu- 
nition factories had almost ceased, but attempts to 
weaken the spirit of the nation continued. 

Lies were circulated for the purpose of keeping 
people from subscribing to the loans which the gov- 
ernment asked, to prevent the saving of food, or to 
keep them from helping the work of the Red Cross, 
or that of the Young Men's Christian Association, 
the Knights of Columbus, Jewish Welfare Board, or 
other associations that were doing much to keep 
up the spirit of our soldier boys. 

The government early took steps to fight this 
propaganda. A Committee on Public Information 
was organized, consisting of the Secretaries of State, 
War, and Navy, and a well-known correspondent and 
magazine writer, Mr. George Creel. This committee 
gave out to all newspapers a great deal of material 
on the causes of the war, the progress of our army 
and navy, etc. It published for circulation, among 
our people, pamphlets which told the truth in a way 
which everybody could understand. Professor G. S. 
Ford was lent to the Committee by the University 
of Minnesota in order to edit these bulletins. 

A group of men in Chicago, headed by Donald 



THE HOME FRONTS 401 

M. Ryerson, had formed the plan of speaking to the 
spectators at moving-picture theaters during the 
intermission between reels. All sorts of patriotic 
subjects were discussed, and German lies and propa- 
ganda were nailed as false. Soon this organization, 
known as the "Four Minute Men," became country 
wide, and was taken over by Mr. Creel as part of 
the "Public Information" work. These men (there 
were women among the speakers also) gave their 
time without pay, speaking two or three times a 
week wherever they might be sent. They were 
lawyers, preachers, teachers, business men, actors, 
writers. Each week a new bulletin was sent out, 
directing each of the 75,000 speakers to discuss the 
same subject. One week it was the Second Liberty 
Loan, another a request for telescopes and field 
glasses for work in the navy, another a plea to the 
people to save sugar and do without wheat. With 
each speaker addressing audiences of from two 
hundred to a thousand persons each week, it was 
easy to see that a great proportion of our citizens 
heard each message. 

No small share of the credit for keeping the home 
front unbroken is due to the founders of this organ- 
ization, and to William McCormick Blair, its 
director, and his three able assistants, William 
H. Ingersoll, Professor S. H. Clark of Chicago Uni- 
versity, and Samuel Hopkins Adams, the well- 
known author. 

The British Food Controller made the statement 



4 o2 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

that the action -of the people of the United States 
in depriving themselves, voluntarily, of 60,000,000 
bushels of wheat in order to feed their Allies was 
without parallel in history. 

Even before we declared war, American women 
were organized into groups to sew for the Red Cross, 
but after our entry there were literally hundreds 
of thousands of these patriotic women who gave up 
their time to this work. There was hardly a village 
too small to have its Red Cross Unit, where bandages 
of all sorts were made and sweaters and socks knit 
for the boys in France. 

All this was possible because the spirit of America, 
like that of France, Britain, and Italy, was heart 
and soul for the war. The home fronts were sound. 

Germany had tried, in the fall of 191 7, to make 
capital out of the cry of the Russian Bolsheviki : 
"no indemnities and no annexations." They had 
echoed this sentiment, hoping to weaken the nations 
of the Entente by persuading the Socialists that 
Germany was merely waging a defensive war, while 
the other nations were fighting to annex German 
territory and force Germany to pay them large sums 
of money. It had only temporary influence. 

When the Italian Socialists found themselves 
so grossly deceived by the Austrians at the time of 
the Caporetto disaster, as you have learned in a 
previous chapter, they lost all faith in German and 
Austrian promises. The treatment of Russia and 
the Ukraine after the signing of the armistice, in 



THE HOME FRONTS 



403 



December, 191 7, opened the eyes of the Socialists 
in Allied lands. If the treaty of Brest-Litovsk was a 
sample of the German manner of carrying out "no 
indemnities and no 
annexations , ' ' then 
the western world 
saw that it could 
talk to Germany 
only from the 
mouth of cannon 
until the Junkers 
were driven from 
power and the Prus- 
sian military ma- 
chine was crushed 
and humbled into 
the dust. 

There had been 
other attempts to 
bring the leaders of 
the warring coun- 
tries together to 
talk peace. The 

Central Powers Pope Benedict XV 

had always eagerly 

accepted these offers, because, holding great stretches 
of enemy country as they did, they hoped to make 
peace on the basis of keeping what they had, or 
using it to exchange for something still more valuable. 
In August, 191 7, the Pope, Benedict XV, addressed 




Photo by Betlini 



4 04 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

"to the Rulers of the Belligerent (warring) 
Peoples" an appeal in which he begged them to 
cease fighting and see if they could not settle the 
whole matter by a treaty, after talking over the 
points of issue across a table in some neutral country. 
He suggested that the Germans withdraw their 
troops from France and Belgium, and that the 
Entente give, back the captured German colonies. 
He hoped that the questions of Alsace-Lorraine 
and "Italia Irredenta" could be settled by going 
into them "in a conciliatory spirit." He pointed 
out that the cost of the war in treasure and human 
lives was so much greater than the value of the lands 
that were being fought over, that it was foolish to 
continue it, if one looked upon the question from the 
practical side only. The whole letter was lofty in tone 
and worthy of the high source from which it came. 

The comments on the note as printed in news- 
papers of the Central Powers were very favorable. 
The leaders of the Entente were uneasy, knowing 
that the spirit behind the proposal was right, yet 
feeling that it was impossible to treat for peace with 
the Junker governments of Germany and Austria. 

It remained for President Wilson to give the reply 
which settled the question. In vigorous and un- 
mistakable language it tore through the mist of 
uncertainty and doubt that surrounded the question 
in the minds of many people, and left the issue as 
clear as day. 

He said, in so many words, that the object of the 



THE HOME FRONTS 405 

war was to deliver the free peoples of the world 
from the threat and from the power of a tremendous 
military machine directed by a government that 
did not have to answer for its acts to the people who 
maintained it ; a government, which having secretly 
planned to conquer the world by force of arms, went 
about it without any regard to its own sworn promises, 
or the laws of decency and humanity. He went 
on to say that this power was not the German 
people ; it was the pitiless master of the German 
people ; that it is no business of ours how that people 
allowed themselves to be ruled by this military group, 
but it was our business to see to it that the history of 
the rest of the world should not depend upon its will ; 
that to treat with this government along the lines 
proposed by the Pope would merely give it new 
strength. He asked whether a peace could be made 
which was based upon any pledge or promise it 
could make. 

After restating the war aims of the United States, 
especially as regards the freedom of small, weak 
nations, he closed by stating that the world could 
not believe the oath of the present rulers of Germany 
as a guarantee of anything unless backed up by 
convincing evidence that the German people them- 
selves would see that it was enforced. At present 
that people had no hand in their government. God 
grant that soon there might be some representatives 
who could truly speak for that nation. 

Then the Junker-controlled papers of Germany 



406 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

began to cry out. They loudly professed that the 
German people loved their princes and Kaisers 
and Junkers ; that the President's answer was 
" grotesque nonsense." In fact the Entente did 
not know how deeply the shaft had sunk through 
the weak spot in the German armor until they read 
these bitter comments. 

The Berlin Vorwdrts (f or'vairts) , the Socialist paper, 
admitted the truth. It pointed out that in all the 
countries warring against Germany, the people could 
control their governments, and asked "Why can it 
not be so with us ? " 

As a matter of fact, the President had hit upon 
a sore spot. A great many people in Germany had 
begun to ask, "Why are we giving the lives of our 
best young men? Is it for the glory of the Kaiser 
and the Junkers ? " A serious mutiny broke out at 
Kiel among the German sailors. It was suppressed 
with an iron hand, but the incident left scars that 
would not heal. 

A number of the English and French journalists 
had the feeling that Wilson had made a mistake in 
separating the German government from the Ger- 
man people in assigning the guilt ; for the people, 
said they, were as guilty as their rulers. However, as 
events proved, later on, this was just the sort of rea- 
soning that broke the home front of Germany in the 
end, and crushed into dust the Empire of the Junkers. 

Both sides were fighting, not only with weapons, 
but also with propaganda. The spreading of the 



THE HOME FRONTS 407 

truth among the Germans was one of the main 
factors in winning the war. The Berlin govern- 
ment had misrepresented facts to its people in the 
same manner in which it had lied to its enemies 
and broken its pledged word. Regarding the bat- 
tle at the Marne, in the first part of September, 
1914, no hint was ever given the people at home 
that everything had not gone just as the great 
General Staff had planned it. The army marched 
northward from the Marne (and twenty miles south 
of it) to the Aisne "for strategic reasons." 

There was no hint to the home people that the 
strategic reasons were the generalship of Joffre, Gal- 
lieni, and Foch, and the furious valor of the French- 
men, defending their homes, aided by the dogged 
courage of the little band of "Old Contemptibles." 
But returned soldiers whispered it to their friends, 
who in turn passed on the news to others that Ger- 
many had suffered a tremendous defeat in one of the 
biggest, most decisive battles of the world's history. 

Thus the German people gradually learned that 
they could not trust their government's accounts of 
what was happening at the front. In the end these 
lies, like chickens and curses, came home to roost. 
For example, at the beginning of the unrestricted 
submarine warfare, in February, 191 7, the German 
people had been told that Great Britain would be 
suing for peace within six months. When the six 
months had gone by and the number of ships sunk 
by submarines was steadily growing less, owing to 



4 o8 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the convoy system and the increased number of 
submarines that were being destroyed, the German 
authorities began exaggerating the number of tons 
of Allied shipping that was being sent to the bottom. 
Six months lengthened into twelve, -and twelve into 
eighteen, and still there were no signs of a surrender 
on the part of Great Britain. The intelligent Ger- 
man, adding up the figures that had been supplied 
him by his government, found that apparently over 
half the British ships had gone to the bottom. Yet 
here was Britain, supplying with food and munitions 
a force in Northern Russia, a big army in Palestine, 
another at Salonica, five in France, besides trans- 
porting over half the American troops to Europe, 
and collecting food and materials from all over the 
world. 

It dawned upon the Germans that they had 
been deceived again, and as they learned the truth 
a mighty despair settled upon the people. In June, 
191 8, the whole nation had been confident of win- 
ning. Russia and Roumania had been crushed and 
dismembered. Two mighty smashes at the western 
front had each come within an ace of breaking the 
French and British armies into disordered fragments. 
One more such drive must take Paris and end the 
war. 

Foch's army of reserve had been eaten up. All his 
troops were in the front line trenches and when these 
were gone there were none to replace them. The 
submarine campaign was a little behind schedule, 



THE HOME FRONTS 409 

it is true, but was due in a short time to bring 
Britain to the breaking point. Such was the dream 
of the Germans. A high German official about this 
time told of the terms on which peace would be 
made. After the German colonies had been re- 
turned, Germany was to annex all of Belgium as 
a dependent state, like Poland, Lithuania, and the 
other Baltic . Provinces. Verdun and the district 
around it was to be taken from France. The cost 
of the war was to be collected from France, Italy, 
Great Britain, and the United States, and a huge 
indemnity was to be asked, in addition, running into 
hundreds of billions of dollars. 

Great Britain was to surrender Egypt, South 
Africa, Gibraltar, Malta, and the Suez Canal. 
Belgium must give up the Congo State. France 
must surrender Morocco, Madagascar, and her part 
of Central Africa. Serbia was to disappear, divided 
between Austria and Bulgaria. 

So talked and thought the Junkers in June, and 
so nearly the whole German nation believed. No 
question of right or fairness bothered them then. 
They had the might. They proposed to take all 
they could get. 

There had been a time, a year previous, before 
the collapse of Russia, when there was a powerful 
peace party in both Germany and Austria, com- 
posed of the merchants and manufacturers who 
were afraid that German goods would be boycotted 
everywhere after the war ; and of the independent 



4io 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Socialists headed by Dr. Liebknecht, who saw that 
it was a Junker war that they were fighting. In 
fact, at one time in 191 7, Count Czernin (chair'nin), 
the Austro-Hungarian Foreign Minister, had proposed 
that Germany offer to surrender Alsace-Lorraine as 
the price of peace. The young Emperor Karl, who 

had followed his aged great- 
uncle upon the throne of 
Austria- Hungary, at one 
time wrote to his wife's 
brother, Prince Sixtus of 
Bourbon, who was fighting 
as an officer in the Belgian 
army, suggesting that the 
prince call upon the French 
president and the prime 
minister and see if they 
would consider a separate 
peace with Austria. He 
stated that French claims 
to Alsace-Lorraine would 
not be an obstacle in the 
way of peace, for he considered them just. 

When this letter was published poor Karl had to 
deny that he ever wrote it, and Kaiser Wilhelm had 
to write publicly saying that he believed this denial, 
which, of course, was only another lie, and many 
intelligent Germans so understood it. 

Meanwhile, two documents which appeared in 
print in Germany, in spite of all that the government 




E'mperor Karl of Austria 



THE HOME FRONTS 411 

could do to suppress them, made a tremendous 
impression on the minds of the German people. 

One was the story of his stay in London (191 1- 
19 14), written by Prince Lichnowsky (likh nof 'ski) , 
German Ambassador to Great Britain at the outbreak 
of the war. In it he pointed out that Sir Edward 
Grey and the British government, far from provoking 
the war, as the Junkers had told the people, had 
worked desperately to avert the conflict, and would 
have been successful in doing so if they had had the 
slightest help from Berlin. He accused the Kaiser 
and the military crowd of having deliberately 
planned the conquest of France, Russia, and Serbia. 
He pointed out (1) that Germany encouraged Count 
Berchtold of Austria to attack Serbia, although no 
German interest was at stake, and the danger of 
a world war was well known ; (2) that in the days 
between July 23 and 30 when SazonofI had 
notified Germany that Russia would not stand by 
and see Serbia attacked, Germany had rejected all 
the British offers of mediation, although Serbia, un- 
der pressure from Russia and Britain, had accepted 
almost the whole Austrian ultimatum, and an agree- 
ment about the other two points could easily have 
been reached ; (3) that on July 30, when Berchtold 
wished to yield, Germany, without Austria's having 
been attacked, replied to Russia's mere mobilization 
by sending an ultimatum to St. Petersburg, and the 
next day had declared war on Russia although the 
Tzar had pledged his word that so long as negotia- 



412 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

tions continued not a man should march — and thus 
Germany had ' ' deliberately destroyed the possibility 
of a peaceful settlement." 

"In view of these indisputable facts, it is not 
surprising that the whole civilized world, outside 
of Germany, attributes to us the sole guilt for the 
world war." So wrote Prince Lichnowsky, and the 
Germans heard the truth about the origin of the war 
for the first time from one of the Junker class. 

Right on the heels of this came the publication 
of a statement by Dr. Muehlon, a director of the 
famous Krupp Gun Works in Germany, in which he 
accused the German government, in even stronger 
terms than Lichnowsky's, of starting the war, and 
said that the deportations of Belgians, the cruel, 
systematic destruction of northern France, the brutal 
submarine attacks, especially on English hospital 
ships, had convinced him that "the present rulers of 
Germany are disqualified forever" for the working 
out of "a sincere and just agreement" toward peace. 
He declared that "the triumph of their methods" 
would be " a defeat for the ideas and supreme hopes 
of mankind." In vain did the German authorities try 
to keep these statements away from their people. 
Millions of copies were printed in Britain and 
France and fired over into the German trenches in 
packages. They were sent up in balloons that 
were carried by the west wind all over western 
Germany. Tons and tons of them were dropped 
by French, British, and American aviators all along 



THE HOME FRONTS 413 

the German lines, and in the midst of the cities of 
the Rhine valley. 

The German government had the habit of printing 
only parts of the speeches of Clemenceau, Lloyd 
George, and Wilson, particularly of the latter. They 
would garble and twist other parts of the speeches, 
to make them seem to mean something different 
from what was originally intended. 

The propaganda department of the Allied armies 
took particular joy in printing the whole speech, 
after the other version had been given out in Ger- 
many, and sending it across to be read by the 
Germans. The garbled or omitted parts were 
"played up" in red letters, and the Germans were 
told to compare the true version with the false 
one sent out from Berlin. 

Ludendorff, in his book, after telling how success- 
ful the German propaganda had been with the Rus- 
sians, confesses that it was a failure, when used 
against the intelligent French and British. "Tommy 
Atkins," as the British soldier is called, and his com- 
rade, the French poilu, laughed at the attempts of 
the Germans to undermine their courage by the 
clumsy misstatements told in the pamphlets flung 
over into the Allied trenches. 

On the other hand, Ludendorfl complains that 
"we found ourselves, bit by bit, attacked by enemy 
propaganda, by speech and writing, through the 
neutral countries, especially across our land frontiers 
with Holland and Switzerland, and also through 



4 i4 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Austria- Hungary and in our very own country, and 
last of all through the air, with such cleverness 
and on so large a scale that many people could no 
longer distinguish between enemy propaganda and 
their own sentiments." 

Here again, the Allies won because they fought 
with truth. When the German officers, in the hope 
of making them fight to the end, told their men that 
the Americans killed all their prisoners, the Allies 
replied by showering the German lines with cuts made 
from photographs of German prisoners in American 
hands. These men were shown cheerful, smiling, well 
fed, smoking their pipes, and playing skat or pinochle. 

A trick that induced many a German to surrender 
was the printing of a list of all the good things to 
eat that were furnished the German prisoners in 
American prison camps. These were dropped by 
thousands over the German lines, and the food 
listed was so much better than what they were 
getting from their own quartermasters that many 
Germans were thereby tempted to surrender. They 
gave up, not for a mess of pottage, but for a plate 
of pork and beans with wheat bread and real butter 
on it. 

''Prussian militarism" loomed up big in all the 
propaganda of the Allies, and it fell on willing ears 
when a Saxon or Bavarian heard it. Lichnowsky's 
words and Muehlon's letter, when printed and scat- 
tered broadcast among the German soldiers, did more 
damage than tons of bombs would have done. 



THE HOME FRONTS 415 

When the Allied armies began to win back ter- 
ritory and to capture prisoners and guns the 
exact amount of these captures was told by Allied 
propaganda to the German soldiers, each week. 
Again it hurt all the more because it was true. 
Pamphlets were hurled into the German lines telling 
the men that Germany was beaten, that 300,000 
young Americans were coming each month, and that 
their own men were being captured at the rate of 
50,000 a week. ' ' Why prolong the war ? Why 
give your lives for a cause that is lost? Sur- 
render, and end your own danger. Surrender, 
and help the folks at home by bringing to a 
quicker ending the blockade that is starving them." 
vSo cried the Allied propaganda, echoing, as Luden- 
dorff confesses, the very thoughts that the Germans 
were already beginning to think. 

It was in August, after the news of the first blow 
dealt by the Fourth British and First French Armies, 
under Rawlinson and Debeney, respectively, that the 
fact dawned upon the German people that they were 
not going to win the war this summer, after all. 

Shortly afterward Ludendorfl sent a messenger 
to tell the diplomats at Berlin that they had better 
hurry to make peace while there was a chance to 
save their plunder, for the spirit of his army was 
beginning to crack, and he could not guarantee how 
long the front would hold unbroken. 

With a stunning blow the truth came home to the 
Germans at last. Not only was Foch's army of 



416 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

reserve not used up, but it was actually growing 
larger by 10,000 men every day, while their own 
armies were dwindling at about the same rate. 
Bulgaria and Turkey were collapsing, Austria was 
sending word that she could not hold her army 
together through another winter, and at any moment 
the French, with the accumulated wrongs of years 
to wipe out, might be upon the soil of the Rhineland 
and on the road to Berlin. 

It was true that Bulgaria and Turkey were col- 
lapsing. The Bulgarian people never had been very 
keen for this war. Once Serbia had been conquered 
and the Dobrudja retaken from Roumania they could 
not see why they should continue fighting against the 
French and British, whom they genuinely admired, 
and the Russians, who had been their friends of old. 
It hurt, too, to be fighting against fellow Christians 
as allies of the Ottoman Turk, the hated oppressor 
of their race for centuries past. The entry of the 
United States into the war on the side against 
Germany and Austria had a marked effect in Bulgaria. 
As has been said earlier, many of her leading men 
had been educated at Robert College, an American 
school in Constantinople, and America was respected 
and admired by most of the leaders among the 
Bulgarian nation. Neither the Bulgarians nor the 
Turks enjoyed being the tail to the German kite, and 
the arrogant manners of the generals and colonels 
sent by the Kaiser to direct their armies did not 
help the situation at all. 



THE HOME FRONTS 417 

The Turkish people were sick of the rule of Talaat 
and Enver. They were war- weary, taxed and 
starved to the limit of their endurance. They had 
gotten to the point where the war meant nothing 
to them ; they had almost nothing left to lose. It 
is no wonder that Berlin heard that no help must 
be expected from Bulgaria and Turkey. 

Austria, too, was seething. The Hungarians were 
loudly crying that their best troops were being 
sacrificed to spare the Austrians. LudendorfT speaks 
of this outcry and deplores it, saying that the 
Hungarians might well have learned a lesson from the 
French, who under like circumstances in 191 7, kept 
"a great and dignified silence." 

The Allied propaganda was doing its work here, 
inviting the Bohemians to revolt and proclaim the 
Czecho-Slovak state independent ; inviting the Poles 
to form a new, free Poland ; inviting the Croats 
and Slovenians to join the Serbs in a new kingdom 
of the South Slavs. The empire of the Hapsburgs, 
founded on ambition and maintained by intrigue and 
oppression, was rapidly cracking apart. 

To the Junkers, after their grandiose dreams in 
June of dictating peace at Versailles (vair si') or 
Buckingham Palace, with loot and plunder, indem- 
nities and annexations, with the nations of the 
Allies their vassals for years to come, the world 
seemed to be coming to an end. 

The mighty structure of Mittel-Europa, founded 
upon force and broken treaties, erected through lies 



418 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and intrigue and a callous disregard for the rights 
and opinions of the rest of the world, was falling in 
dust about their ears. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1 . Why was Clemenceau called to the leadership of France ? 

2. What looked suspicious in Caillaux's conduct during the war? 

3. What was it that Bolo had been hired by the Germans to do? 

4. How did Great Britain treat Ireland during the war? 

5. Why had the German government tried so hard to cultivate the 
friendship of the United States? 

6. How were the German-Americans gradually converted? 

7. How did traitors try to undermine the support of the war? 

8. What subjects did the Four Minute Men talk about? 

9. Why did President Wilson tell the Pope that it was out of the 
question to talk peace with Germany ? 

10. How was the confidence of the German people in their own 
government destroyed? 

n. Why was Karl of Austria anxious for peace? 

12. How did Prince Lichnowsky prove that his own government 
was to blame for starting the war? 

13. How did the Allies get news to the German people? 

14. Why was the German propaganda successful against the 
Russians, but unsuccessful against the French and British? 

15. Why was the Allied propaganda so successful? 

16. What influences were at work in Bulgaria and Turkey? 

17. What was the great trouble in Austria-Hungary? 



CHAPTER XVI 
The Sinking Ship and the Rats 

Austria's plea and Wilson's answer. — Bulgaria surrenders. — The 
British smash the formidable Siegfried Line. — Australians and 
Americans. — Foch's generals. — A race with winter. — Social- 
ists are admitted to the German Cabinet. — Prince Max begs 
for an armistice. — Wilson's reply clears the air. — The Ameri- 
cans clean up the Argonne. — The Serbs in Nish. — Ostend, 
Lille, La Fere, Laon, and a thousand square miles retaken in four 
days. — The Czechs and Slovaks declare their independence. — 
The Hungarians proclaim themselves out of the war. — Kaiser 
Karl grants self-government to his various peoples. — The end 
of the submarine campaign. — Wilson's last answer. — The 
Serbs and the French reach the Danube. — Allenby and Marshall 
put out the Turks. — The surrender of Turkey. — The anni- 
versary of Caporetto. — Austria begs for peace. 

The smashing of the Siegfried and Wotan 
Lines by Home's Canadians and Scotsmen on Sep- 
tember 2 had sent a chill through the hearts of 
the Junkers, and LudendorfT had warned the home 
authorities that they had better begin bargaining 
for peace while they still had something with which 
to trade (Belgium and northeastern France). The 
pride of Germany would not allow her to make 
the first move, so Austria was used as a cat's-paw. 

On September 15, 191 8, in a long, rambling note 

addressed to all the warring nations, " friend and 

foe alike," Austria- Hungary invited them to send 

419 



420 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

representatives "to a confidential" (secret) "and 
non-binding discussion at a neutral meeting place" 
to begin the work of bringing peace to the world. 

This note of the Austrian government was handed 
by the Swedish Minister to Secretary of State 
Lansing, at 6: 20 p.m., on September 16. At 6:45 
the same day, the Secretary of State gave to the 
newspapers of the world the following statement, 
which, he said, was a short summary of the answer 
that would be returned : ' ' The Government of the 
United States feels that there is only one reply 
which it can make to the suggestion of the Imperial 
Austro-Hungarian Government. 

"It has repeatedly and with entire candor stated 
the terms upon which the United States would 
consider peace, and can and will entertain no pro- 
posal for a conference upon a matter concerning 
which it has made its position and purpose so plain." 

Checkmate to the smooth scheme of getting 
together to cajole and intrigue out of the Allies what 
Germany and Austria had failed to win by force ! 
There was no answer. 

Britain and Italy also gave replies that rang 
true; while in France, the old "Tiger" delivered 
a statement to the French Senate which began with 
these words : ' ' We will fight until the hour when 
the enemy comes to understand that bargaining 
between crime and right is no longer possible. We 
want a just and a strong peace, protecting the 
future against the abominations of the past." 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 



421 



Meanwhile, the Junkers were singing a different 
tune than they had sung in June. They were no 
longer annexing everything in sight and collecting 
indemnities from the whole world. On September 
12, the German Vice-Chancellor, Von Payer (Pa'yer), 
made a speech in which he 
stated that Germany did 
not desire to keep Belgium, 
but would get out of that 
country if the German 
colonies were handed back. 
Also he confessed that it 
would be better to forego 
the pleasure of collecting 
the cost of the war from 
the British, French, and 
Americans, forperhaps 
that plan would delay the 
peace which everybody so 
desired. 

Also — significant fact — the Prussian Diet 
showed signs of reforming its Junker election laws, 
and giving the common people a little more voice in 
their government. The leaven of democracy was be- 
ginning to work in proportion to the failing strength 
of the Junker armies. 

We left the Bulgars retreating northward and 
eastward, their armies divided by the impetuous 
rush of the Serbs and the French. In the east the 
British and Greeks were moving forward steadily, 




Photo by Underwood & Underwood 

General Franchet d'Esperey 



422 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

while the Italians, stretched across Albania, were 
driving heavy blows at the Austrians before them. 
Within a few days it became plain that the Serbs 
and French had made a clean break through, and 
that General d'Esperey, by pushing swiftly up the 
valleys of the Czerna ( chair 'na) and Vardar rivers, 
had cut off the greater part of the First Bulgarian 
Army, and stood between it and its source of supplies. 

The eager Serbs, pursuing their hereditary ene- 
mies, lived for eight days with no food other than 
that which they could find in their path. Their sup- 
ply trains, organized for years to feed men in the 
stationary trenches, could not get forward over the 
poor roads and mountain paths by which the men 
were following the fleeing foe. But their day of 
vengeance had come at last ! 

By September 25, the Serbs and French were 
forty miles north of their former lines, capturing 
town after town and taking thousands of prisoners. 
While southern Serbia was thus being freed of the 
enemy, the British and Greeks, were on Bulgarian 
soil, and Tzar Ferdinand was frantically demanding 
help from Vienna and Berlin. 

But Vienna was afraid to spare a man from her 
Italian lines, which held only because the enemy 
was not yet ready to break them, and Berlin was 
sending every available regiment to bolster up the 
cracking west front. With sinking hearts the Junkers 
sent word to Ferdinand that Bulgaria must hold, 
somehow, and fight out her own salvation. 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 



423 



But Bulgaria was past caring what became of her 
German ruler. Her people had never whole- 
heartedly supported the war. They had been forced 
into it by their Tzar and his pro-German minister, 
Radoslavoff. An official statement given out in 1919 
by the Bulgarian government tells that the majority 
of the people entered the war with a heavy heart. ' ' The 
prospect of retaking Macedonia which the Serbians 
had usurped — stifled in the soldiers the horror they 
felt at a war in which the Turks were their allies 
and the Russians their foes. But, Macedonia once 
occupied, the army was seized again with its re- 
pugnance to the unnatural alliance into which the 
government had pushed it. The necessity in which 
the Bulgarian soldier found himself of fighting 
against four great European nations, which he had 
always regarded as being the protectors of Bulgaria, 
put him into a violent moral crisis. This crisis was 
transformed into a latent revolt when the United 
States entered the fray. The newspapers of Sofia 
had published the fourteen points of the memorable 
message of President Wilson. The troops which 
had learned of it began to ask themselves whether 
there was any sense in continuing to fight against 
a coalition" (group of nations) "toward which they 
were animated by no hatred whatsoever, and which, 
through the President of the United States, had pro- 
claimed once again the principles which Bulgaria 
pleaded in favor of her cause, and beyond which she 
asked for nothing." 



424 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

The home front was broken. Mobs surrounded 
the offices of the government in Sofia, demanding 
peace, and crying out bitterly against the German 
alliance. With .revolution hanging over him, the 
crafty Tzar, who had plotted and intrigued for thirty 
years to make himself the ruling force in the Balkan 
Peninsula, saw the handwriting on the wall, realized 
that his plots and bargaining had all been in vain, 
and consented to ask for an immediate armistice. 

A Bulgarian officer hurried to Salonica and there 
begged Franchet d'Esperey to cease fighting, as 
delegates from Sofia were on their way to ask for 
peace. Fearing a trick, the Frenchman answered 
that he would be glad to receive the Bulgarian 
delegation, but that meanwhile his men would keep 
on capturing Bulgars and retaking Serbian towns. 

On September 29, the delegates arrived at Salonica 
and terms were soon signed. It was a complete 
surrender. All of Bulgaria was thrown open to 
the Allies, the only stipulation upon which the 
Bulgars insisted being that only French, British, and 
Italian troops should occupy their lands ; — they 
did not care to expose their homes and families to 
the tender mercies of the Greeks and Serbs ! 

All Bulgarian guns and munitions of war were 
to be placed at the disposal of the Allies for their 
war against Turkey and Austria, and they were to 
be allowed to use all Bulgarian railroads and 
Bulgarian boats on the Danube. 

The next day the Allied governments gave their con- 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 425 

sent to these terms, and the fighting for the Bulgari- 
ans ceased, — just as the French and Serbs reached 
Uskub, the capital of the ancient kingdom of Serbia. 

When the news reached Berlin, the Junkers knew 
that the game was up. There was nothing to pre- 
vent the army of d'Esperey, one million strong, from 
advancing northward through Serbia and Albania into 
Austria. Once on the Danube, this force would be 
joined by half a million Roumanians, smarting under 
the cruel peace terms just forced upon them, and 
thirsting for revenge. A part of the Salonica army 
might turn eastward through Bulgaria and take 
Constantinople, but this now was hardly worth 
while, for the overwhelming victory of Allenby had 
put Turkey out of the running and it was only a ques- 
tion of time when this country, too, must surrender. 
General Maude, the captor of Bagdad, had died 
of the cholera, but under his successor, General 
Marshall, the army on the Tigris was slowly ad- 
vancing up this river. With Allenby in Damascus, 
it was plain that this Turkish force facing Marshall 
would soon be caught between the two British 
armies and forced to surrender. 

Now all the fronts were aflame with action. 
Plumer and Degoutte with the Belgians were making 
real progress, while Gouraud and the Americans 
were forcing their way through the supposedly 
impregnable Argonne Forest. Having driven hard at 
the two ends of the great curve stretching from the 
German border to the sea, Foch now hurled Rawlin- 



426 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

son's Fourth Army and Byng's Third at the most 
formidable part of the Hindenburg Line, the sector 
stretching from Cambrai to St. Quentin, a zone of 
trenches, canals, and barbed wire some twelve 
miles deep, defended by the best men that Luden- 
dorfl could muster. 

A thrust by Home's men, and another by 
Debeney's French had drawn the German reserves 
to the sides of the spot toward which the main 
drive was aimed. Debeney had taken St. Quentin, 
from which the Germans had carried away the whole 
population — 50,000 people. Meanwhile, a clean 
break through the German lines to the north had 
been made by the reorganized Fifth British Army, 
now commanded by General Sir William Bird wood. 
As a result a big withdrawal was necessary, freeing 
Lille, the great industrial center of northern France, 
and its neighboring cities of Roubaix (roo'ba/) and 
Tourcoing (toor'cwang') and a hundred other towns 
and villages which had been in German hands for 
more than four years. 

Returning to the big thrust at the center of the 
Hindenburg Line, we find the British, on October 
8, smashing forward against the most formidable 
defenses of the whole western front. There were 
other parts of the lines, like the Chemin des Dames, 
where the hillsides made the going especially diffi- 
cult, and others, like the Argonne, where thicket 
and tangled underbrush added greatly to the man- 
made defenses ; but for massive masonry, barbed 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 427 

wire, deep water-filled moats, and elaborately for- 
tified trenches there was nothing to compare with 
this Cambrai-St. Quentin sector of the Siegfried 
Line. 

In all, a front of twenty miles was attacked. As 
has been said, the brunt of the fighting was borne by 
Byng's men and Rawlinson's, though Home to the 
north and Debeney to the south were in it, too. The 
27th American Division and afterwards the 30th 
were in the thick of the fight, accompanying their 
new friends, the Australians, where the work was 
hottest. (A warm friendship based on mutual 
admiration and understanding had sprung up be- 
tween the Americans and these fierce fighters from 
the Southern Continent. A London newspaper spoke 
of how "astonishingly alike" the Americans and 
Australians looked and acted. After the Americans 
and Australians had celebrated Fourth of July by 
capturing Hamel together, King George, talking 
with a group of Australians, asked what kind of 
fighters the Americans were. "Very much all 
right, sir," came the answer, "but a bit rough !") 

It was a serious undertaking to tackle this position, 
with the great canal paralleling the Scheldt River 
as a positive barrier to the tanks ; but the great 
British guns roared, and the British Tommies 
stepped forward to their work, confident that this 
was the last great task that they would have to 
accomplish. 

For Ludendorfl and Hindenburg had planned to 



428 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

hold this position. In the north they could retreat, 
running a new line from the Dutch boundary down 
through Courtrai and Tournai, but they felt they 
must hold the Siegfried trenches till winter put 
an end to the active fighting. Then the German 
diplomats would save all they could from the wreck 
of the dream of "World Power" as the Junkers called 
it, and would make the best possible bargain for 
peace. 

But the fighting spirit was oozing out of the Ger- 
man army. The Allied airmen were showering the 
soldiers with leaflets, more fatal to the Junkers than 
explosives. "Do you know that Bulgaria has sur- 
rendered ? " said these papers. "Had you heard of 
the complete ' cave-in ' of the Turkish forces ? Do 
you realize that the Salonica army is sweeping 
northward without opposition and that it will be 
in Austria within a few days? Surrender and end 
the war. Why sacrifice lives needlessly?" 

In spite of their machine guns, their canals, their 
concrete trenches and barbed wire, the Germans 
could not stop the Islanders. On the 8th of October 
the attack began ; after furious fighting on that day 
a good-sized dent had been made. 

On the ninth it deepened and widened ; the canal 
and river were crossed, the engineers rapidly threw 
their bridges over, and the dreaded tanks were once 
more in action. On the tenth Cambrai fell into the 
hands of the British, at last, and the troops found 
only open country and fleeing Germans before them. 






THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 



429 



The British Army had won its greatest victory, 
fought over the same ground where the "Old Con- 
temptibles" took such a dreadful hammering during 
the last week in August, 191 4. Thirty German 
divisions had been thrown into the fight by Luden- 
dorfT in a desperate attempt to hold them back. 

Meanwhile, Foch had been keeping the French 
pushing hard at the south- 
ern side of the great salient. 
The armies of Humbert, Man- 
gin, Berthelot, and Gouraud 
gave the Germans no rest. 

The campaign that finally 
forced the enemy to aban- 
don the Hindenburg Line 
from the Forest of St. 
Gobain to the Argonne will 
stand as a masterpiece of 
military work. 

One by one the war had 
weeded out the generals 
who could not " deliver the goods." On the British 
side only Haig and Rawlinson remained of those 
who had held the more important commands at the 
beginning. On the French side first JofTre and then 
Foch had pitilessly removed or demoted the weak, 
the wavering, the slow, the vain, the stupid. 

Of the generals prominent in the French army 
at the outset of the war besides Foch himself and 
Franchet d'Esperey only De Castelnau was still in 




General de Castelnau 



43° 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



active service. He was well advanced in years and 
commanded a group of armies where not much active 
fighting was going on. Petain remained the com- 
mander-in-chief of the French armies, with Fayolle 

his second in command. 
DeMitry, Maistre, and 
Hirschauer the Alsatian, 
commanded on quiet 
sectors, but the bulk of 
the actual fighting was 
done by the armies led 
by Degoutte, Debeney, 
Humbert, Guillaumat, 
Mangin, Berthelot, and 
Gouraud. These seven 
were "the flower of the 
flock," masters of their 
trade, who had gone to 
school to Professor Foch 
of the Military College 
and now were proving 
that they had learned 
their lessons well. 

A skillful thrust by 
Mangin cleared the south bank of the Ailette, and 
landed his men on the right flank of the Germans to the 
southeast, who were holding the Aisne. On October 3, 
Gouraud struck north unexpectedly, capturing the im- 
portant railroad town of Challerange (shal ranzh') with 
2800 prisoners. Here Ludendorff had thrown in some 




'& Keystone View Co. 

General Guillaumat 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 



431 



of his very best fighters. Divisions of the Guards and 
other crack regiments, among them the famous 200th 
Jager Division, were the troops that strove to hold 
back the French. An order was captured, addressed 
to the 200th Jagers, which read as follows: "You 
must make the determination to hold out to the very 
end enter the heart and life's blood of every soldier. 
No inch of ground must be abandoned without 
instant counter-attack. It must be a point of honor 
for officers to force their men everywhere to resist 
until death." 

The Junkers were ready to sacrifice their best 
men, — anything to hold back the French from the 
vital railroad in the rear ; on the other hand both 
Mangin and Gouraud won their victories mainly 
by a clever concentration of artillery and skillful 
outflanking of the enemy positions, at a cost which 
was very small in comparison with the value of the 
ground that was gained. 

On the 8th of October, the same day on which the 
British began their grand drive through the Sieg- 
fried Line, the Germans discovered that Berthelot 
on the west and Gouraud on the east had dug in so 
far behind their lines before Rheims that the whole 
army of Von Mudra was in danger of capture. 

Accordingly a rapid retreat was ordered, and the 
whole pocket, thirty miles wide and eight miles deep, 
was abandoned without firing a shot. The famous 
forts on Brimont Heights, north of Rheims, where 
so many thousand gallant Frenchmen had died 



432 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

in fruitless attacks, and the almost equally bloody 
Moron villers Hills to the east, were left behind 
for good. It had seemed to the Germans that these 
positions could not be taken, and their despair at 
giving them up was equal to the triumphant joy of 
the French. 

Foch gave the enemy no rest. It was a race, now, 
with the weather. If the Germans could stave off a 
crushing defeat and hold their main railway lines 
till winter slowed up the Allies' advance, then their 
diplomats might still patch up a peace which would 
leave Germany some spoils and keep the Kaiser on 
his throne. 

The next day Gouraud struck again, this time to 
the northwest. Again he penetrated an unsuspected 
chink in the German defenses, and by filtering in 
behind them forced the enemy in despair to retreat 
from the hills of Notre Dame des Champs, which 
they had fortified with tier after tier of " pillboxes," 
and which they had imagined would hold back the 
French forever. 

Meanwhile the enemy home fronts were crack- 
ing. The surrender of Bulgaria, coming so sud- 
denly and without any warning, had thrown the 
German people into a state of desperation. In a 
vain attempt to appease the people, Chancellor 
von Hertling (Von Bethmann-Hollweg had been 
forced to resign in 191 7) was tossed overboard 
and a new pilot called on to steer the ship of state — ■ 
Prince Max of Baden, who was popular with the masses. 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 433 

But the most distressing news kept coming from 
the capitals of Germany's allies. 

On the 4th of October, Berlin heard that Fer- 
dinand of Saxe-Coburg, German Tzar of Bulgaria, 
had been forced to give up his throne to his young 
son and flee the country. On the same day Con- 
stantinople reported that Talaat, the brutal "boss" 
of the Turkish empire, had resigned his post as 
Minister of the Interior, and was a fugitive. 

In an eleventh hour, death-bed-repentance sort 
of spirit, the Junkers, the first week in October, 
admitted to the German cabinet three Socialists, 
David, Bauer, and Scheidemann, and the Catholic 
leader, Erzberger. Shades of Bismarck and Von 
Moltke ! These were the people whom the Junkers 
had always treated as if they were the scum of 
the earth, and here they were, invited to become 
members of the All-Highest' s cabinet of trusted 
counselors and ministers ! 

But fresh shocks were in store for the Junkers. 
On October 5, there came a request from Prince 
Max ' and the new German Cabinet, addressed to 
the President of the United States. It asked him 
in the name of the new German government to in- 
vite representatives of all the warring nations to 
meet to discuss terms of peace, assuring him that 
"it accepts the program set forth by the President 
on January 8" (see page 258) "and in his later 
announcements, as a basis for peace negotiations." 
The message closed by demanding an immediate 



434 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

armistice "with a view to avoiding further blood- 
shed." 

Clear and unmistakable came back Wilson's 
answer. "Do you mean that you accept my terms 
as stated on January 8 and subsequently, and that 
the only reason for calling a peace conference is to 
agree upon the practical details of their applica- 
tion?" He went on to say that he could not think 
of asking the Belgians, French, and Italians to cease 
fighting while German armies were on their soil. 
The note closed by asking "whether the Chancellor 
is speaking merely" for the Junker group "who 
have so far conducted the war." 

On October 1 2 (the Hindenburg Line having been 
smashed by both British and French in the mean- 
time) back came Germany's reply. The peace meet- 
ing would be only to agree on practical details, it 
said. The Germans and Austro-Hungarians were 
ready to evacuate Allied territory. As for the Presi- 
dent's question about the authority of the Chancellor 
to speak for the whole German nation, let him set 
his mind at rest. The present cabinet represented 
all parties in the Reichstag, and so stood for the 
entire population of the empire. 

The Junkers thus fancied that they had 
completely met all of Wilson's objections and that 
nothing remained to prevent a peace which would 
leave them secure in their places, when two days 
later came back a new reply from the President 
which struck them a stunning blow. 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 435 

No armistice, said he, in effect, can exist with 
any army which continues the illegal and inhuman 
practices that Germany still persists in. At the very 
moment when you are asking for peace, your subma- 
rines are killing peaceful women and children as they 
try to escape in life-boats. You are robbing and 
wantonly destroying villages in Flanders and France 
and carrying off their inhabitants to slavery. There 
will be no stopping of fighting while you continue acts 
that we justly look upon with horror and burning 
hearts. 

You say you are ready for peace on the basis 
of my terms. Do not forget that one of them, as 
given in my speech of July 4 was, "The destruc- 
tion of every arbitrary power that can secretly 
and of its single choice disturb the peace of the 
world." The power that has ruled Germany is of 
the sort here described. If the Germans want 
peace, they must know that it will have to be 
guaranteed by others than the Junker military 
group. 

Like an ice-cold shower this answer fell upon the 
Germans. This American was not so easy, after 
all. As one Parisian paper said, "The leaders of 
Germany asked for public debate. They have it. 
As a first result they are shown to the eyes of their 
own people who are gasping for peace, as the prin- 
cipal obstacles to that peace." 

In the meanwhile fierce fighting was going on 
everywhere along the front. The terrific battle of 



4.36 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

the Meuse-Argonne was steadily moving northward. 
Crack German divisions were thrown into the fight 
in a desperate effort to hold back the Americans, 
who were slowly but surely approaching the all- 
important railroad through Sedan and Longuyon. 
The Americans did not avoid German machine- 
gun nests and fortified strongholds with the skill 
of the veteran French. But the men rushed them, 
giving their lives with the most reckless courage. 

One battalion of the Seventy-seventh Division was 
lost for three days, surrounded by Germans on all 
sides and pounded by artillery and machine guns. 
The men refused to surrender. The French to the 
west made an attempt to break through and rescue 
them. It failed, but saved them from being cut to 
pieces by diverting their enemies on that side. The 
next day a determined assault by their comrades broke 
through the ring that surrounded them and saved the 
survivors, three-fourths of the original number. 

By October 12 the entire Argonne Forest was 
cleared of the enemy. The French on the west 
and the Americans from the east met at the gap 
where the Aisne breaks through the woods. Not 
a German was left south of the stream. It had 
been a bitter, savage battle, against the worst 
country on the whole western front as well as 
against some of the crack troops of the Kaiser. 

On October 16 the Americans took Grand Pre. 
The Argonne Forest lay behind them, its defenses a 
memory only ; but before them rose, menacing and 



1 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 437 

grim, the mighty concrete ramparts of the Kriemhilde 
Line, the last serious obstacle, but one, between 
the Americans and Gouraud's French, on the one 
side, and the Longuyon railroad on the other. 

Meanwhile, cheering news kept coming in from 
the other fronts. The triumphant Serbs, chasing the 
fleeing Germans and Austrians out of their redeemed 
country, had reached Nish, their war capital, on 
October 13, having fought their way northward one 
hundred and fifty miles in four weeks. The Germans 
and Austrians in Serbia and Albania had been reen- 
forced by the army which had been occupying Rou- 
mania, but nothing could stop the onward rush of 
d'Esperey's men. On the 15th the Italians took 
Durazzo, on the coast of Albania, and a few days 
later the Austrians were hastily fleeing across Mon- 
tenegro into their own province of Bosnia. 

The Roumanians were rising, and at any moment 
their army of half a million men might be added 
to the forces of the Allies for an invasion of 
Austria-Hungary, together with the Serbs and 
French, from the southeast. 

The effect of the three great drives at the German 
western front (the British near Le Catelet (cat/la), 
the French east of Rheims, and the Americans north 
of Verdun) now began to be evident. 

A great retreat was ordered by Ludendorff. Out 
of the Belgian coast towns came the sullen Germans. 
The cities of Courtrai and Bruges were in the hands 
of the Allies by October 18. Ostend and Zeebrugge 



438 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

welcomed their countrymen, after four years of night- 
mare under German rule. 

In France the cities of Lille, Roubaix, Tourcoing, 
Douai, La Fere, Laon, and Vouziers (voozya/), to- 
gether with over a thousand square miles of French 
and Belgian territory were the fruits of the breaking 
of the Hindenburg Line. Desperately, Ludendorfl 
strove to rally his men on the new — Hunding and 
Kreimhilde — lines. Especially must the latter posi- 
tion be held at all costs. If the Americans broke it, 
then the great German armies must go out of Bel- 
gium through the small end of a funnel — over the 
one railroad through Liege — and a terrible rout 
might be the result. 

But the home fronts were cracking behind the 
armies of the Central Powers. 

On the 1 8th of October the Czecho-Slovak National 
Council in Paris declared the independence of their 
nation. On the same day the Czechs rose up in 
Prague, their capital, threw out the Austrian govern- 
ment officials and raised the Czecho-Slovak flag over 
the public buildings. 

Wild joy marked the celebration of the day, both 
in Bohemia and among the troops fighting in the 
Allied armies. The Czech troops in the Austrian 
army tore off the Hapsburg colors from their hats 
and decorated themselves with the red and white of 
the new republic. The Czecho-Slovak division of 
General Gouraud's army, fighting on the heights 
of the Aisne, in a frenzy of enthusiasm attacked 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 



439 



and captured, after an hour's fierce hand-to-hand 
fighting, the village of Terron, one of the strongest 
positions in the German line. 

The Hungarians, too, were through. On October 
20, Count Michael Karolyi urged, in the Hun- 
garian Congress, a separation from Austria. Three 
days later a Hungarian National Council was formed, 
and steps were taken to set up an independent 
government. This government announced its in- 
tention of making peace with the newly formed 
Czecho-Slovak and South Slav states and of taking 
no further part in the war. 

On the 1 8th of October poor Karl of Hapsburg, 
Emperor of Austria- Hungary, gave out the an- 
nouncement that henceforth the empire would be 
organized as a union of federated states, each state 
enjoying the greatest freedom in self-government ! 
It was too late, like the deathbed repentance of 
the Junkers in Germany. Had the offer been made 
in 1 916, it might have held the " ramshackle empire" 
together for a little while longer. But the Czechs, 
Magyars (Hungarians), Roumanians, and South Slavs 
had now gone too far. They could not retrace their steps . 

Desperately the Junkers strove for peace while 
their armies could still resist. On October 20 came 
their third note to the President. Surely they 
would evacuate Belgium and northern France with- 
out any further damage. That had been their 
intention always. Only military damage : blowing 
up bridges, railroad tracks, etc., would be done. 



440 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Any other destruction would be punished. (At 
this point it is interesting to read the statement 
of the people of certain Belgian cities like Bruges, 
who testified that only President Wilson's stern 
note of October 14 had saved their towns from 
terrible, wanton destruction. They said that on 
that date the Germans suddenly ceased making 
preparations to blow up and raze all buildings. 
Also Ludendorff confesses that his aviators had 
been supplied with a new kind of bomb for setting 
towns on fire. He had planned to send two great 
squadrons of airplanes to set London and Paris 
afire in a thousand places at once, but lost his 
nerve at the last moment, because he feared that 
Berlin, Munich, and Hamburg might be burned in 
like manner, later on, by the infuriated enemy.) 
The German answer then went on to state that 
although it was not true that Germans had ever 
fired upon the life-boats of sinking ships, never- 
theless orders would be sent out at once to all 
submarine commanders, telling them not to sink 
any more passenger ships. 

As to the question of the President regarding the 
destruction of any power that can secretly and of 
its own single choice start a war ; to this the German 
government replied : Up to this time the repre- 
sentatives of the people had not had an influence 
on the formation of the government. (What a con- 
fession from the Junker war lords !) The people or 
their representatives had had no voice in the matter 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 441 

of peace and war. But now all that was changed. 
There was a new government, and its first act had 
been to lay before the Reichstag a bill to let the 
people vote on the question of peace or war, etc. 

On the 23rd of October back came Wilson's 
answer — a shot right in the center of the bull's-eye. 
Now that the German government had agreed 
to accept peace along the lines laid down in his 
addresses of January 8 and September 27, and 
had promised to obey the rules of civilized warfare 
on both land and sea, said he, he would ask 
Britain, France, and the other Allies to agree to an 
armistice. He must warn the Germans, however, 
that the only kind of armistice that he would 
think of proposing would be one that would leave 
the enemy helpless and unable to renew the war. 

For to be perfectly frank, in spite of the changes 
spoken of by the German government, they had 
not gone to the root of the trouble. Future wars 
might be under the control of the German people 
but the present one was not. It was plain that the 
power of the King of Prussia to control the policy 
of the empire was as strong as ever, and that the 
military group were still the masters of Germany. 

In plain language, the nations of the world could 
not trust the word of those who had up to this time 
been directing the German state, and if they con- 
tinued in control, the government of the United 
States would have to demand, not peace negotiations, 
but surrender. 



442 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



Snap ! The jaws of the trap so carefully set to 
catch the easy, soft-hearted Americans closed 




Underwood & Underwood 



Woodrow Wilson 



suddenly, and in its pitiless teeth the Junkers and 
the Kaiser lay struggling. In tens of thousands 
the copies of this speech were scattered by aviators 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 443 

over the German lines and over the cities of the 
Rhine valley. And the war- weary, despairing people 
saw the Kaiser with his followers as the Old Man 
of the Sea, to be cast off, if peace was to come again 
to them. 

Let us turn again to follow the progress of the 
armies. The victorious Serbs and French were 
rapidly driving the Germans and Austrians out of 
Serbia. On the 21st of October the French reached 
the Danube near the Serb-Bulgar boundary line. 
On the same date the Serbs were only eighty miles 
from Belgrade. Both forces had fought their way 
northward two hundred miles during the last month. 
It was no wonder that Hungary wanted peace. 
The Hungarians knew what their soldiers had done 
to the Serbian people, and had no wish to see the 
Serbs north of the Danube, revenging in full measure 
the wrongs done to their old men, women, and 
children. 

Meanwhile, in Syria, north of Palestine, Sir 
Edmund Allenby and his men were making the same 
rapid progress northward that marked the rush of 
d'Esperey's army. On the 26th of October he 
captured Aleppo, on the Berlin to Bagdad railroad, 
and the forces facing General Marshall on the 
Tigris were cut off from retreat. But Marshall had 
begun, two days before, to move upon them in force. 
After a severe battle, lasting several days, he drove 
his troops between the enemy and the city of Mosoul 
(mo'sobT) and shut them off from their supplies. On 



444 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

October 30, the survivors, hemmed in and helpless, 
surrendered to him unconditionally. Turkey, like 
Bulgaria, had no more fight left in her. The old 
Sultan had died during the summer, and Talaat and 
Enver, the real rulers, had fled, one to Germany, 
the other into the interior of Asia Minor. 

On October 31, just four years from the time 
when Enver had allowed Admiral Souchon to take 
the Sultan Selirn and the Midullu (otherwise known 
as the Goeben and the Breslau) to bombard the Rus- 
sian ports on the Black Sea, Turkey formally signed 
the papers that took her out of the war. It was 
a complete surrender, like Bulgaria's. 

On the historic island of Lemnos, in the ^gean 
Sea, the Turkish representatives met the British 
Admiral Cal thorp. With them, freed, and restored 
to his countrymen, they brought General Town- 
shend, prisoner in Turkey since his surrender at 
Kut-el-Amara in the spring of 19 16. There had 
always been a party in Constantinople who were 
pro-British, and these men now came to the front, 
trying to save as much as possible from the wreck 
that had been made of their country by Talaat, 
Enver, Djemal, and the " Committee of Union and 
Progress." 

The battles in France were still fiercely contended. 
The cream of the remaining German troops had been 
thrown into the fray, in a desperate effort to hold 
the Hermann, Hunding, and Freya (fra'ya) Lines. 
The Hunding fortifications lay in the center, 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 445 

and it was the task of the French to break them. 
Foch flung the armies of Guillaumat and Mangin at 
weak spots in the enemy's positions, while Gouraud 
and the Americans, having broken the Kriemhilde 
barrier, made one last drive at the Freya trenches. 

The dash and vigor of the French troops in these 
final battles was remarkable. After four years and 
three months of fighting, they charged and climbed 
with the same spirit as that of the young men from 
overseas and showed the same eagerness to get at 
their foe. 

On October 24, in Berlin, Karl Liebknecht, the 
fearless Socialist, who had denounced the war as a 
Junker scheme for plunder and conquest, was 
released from prison. On the next day, pathetic 
effort, the Prussian House of Lords at last passed 
the laws for reform of elections. Too late, my lords 
Junkers, too late ! 

Toward the middle of October Foch sent word to 
Diaz that it was time for Italy to strike. The 
numbers of the opposing armies on the Piave were 
not far from equal. There were sixty-three Austrian 
divisions facing fifty-one Italian divisions with three 
British, two French, one Czecho-Slovak, and an 
American regiment, the 332nd. But Foch knew that 
with the turmoil and revolution brewing at home, the 
Austrian army was like a rotten melon, ready to burst 
into pieces if some one struck it one vigorous blow. 

Although they were ready sooner, the Italians 
waited ; waited nearly a week for the anniversary 



446 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

of Caporetto. October 24 should not be marked 
in their calendar as one of Italy's black days. In- 
stead it should be celebrated for their final revenge 
upon their ancient enemy and oppressor. 

Beginning the attack in the district of Monte 
Grappa, between the Brenta and Piave rivers, the 
battle soon spread all along the hundred and twenty 
mile front. Six days after the first assault the 
Italians had over 33,000 prisoners and the Austrian 
army, cut into two parts, was being rolled back 
all along the line. By November 1, the battle in 
the plains had become a rout, with the Austrians 
fleeing in wildest confusion. Eighty thousand 
prisoners had been counted, and enormous quantities 
of supplies had fallen into the hands of the victors. 
From Vienna came frantic appeals for an armistice. 
First an Austrian captain rode into the Italian lines 
bearing a white flag. He was sent back and told 
that the question of ceasing firing must be discussed 
with some one with authority to speak. The next 
day another white flag appeared, and a delegation 
of eight high officers, headed by General von Weber, 
asked to see the Italian Commander-in-Chief. 

Alone in a world of enemies, oh Kaiser ! You who 
would have smashed in with shining sword the doors 
of those who did not wish a German peace thrust 
upon them, now find that the world has moved 
forward several hundred years since the days when 
might was right. Deserted by your allies, scorned 
and detested by the whole civilized world, and on 



THE SINKING SHIP AND THE RATS 447 

longer obeyed by your own people, your day of 
pomp and power is fast hastening to its end. 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

1. Why was it that Austria and not .Germany began the peace 
negotiations ? 

2. Why did the Prussians move to give the people more voice in 
the government? 

3. Why did the Bulgarians grow cold toward the war? 

4. What forced Bulgaria to make peace ? 

5. How did the victory over Bulgaria threaten Austria and Tur- 
key? 

6. . Why was the breaking of the Hindenburg Line near Cambrai so 
important ? 

7. What was the effect on the German army of the surrender of 
Bulgaria? 

8. Why was the railroad in the rear of the Germans so important 
to them? 

9. Why was time so important in the campaign in France? 

10. Why was Talaat forced to flee from Turkey? 

11. Why did the Junkers admit Socialists to the German Cabinet ? 

12. Why did President Wilson ask the Chancellor whether he spoke 
for the people also? 

13. How did Wilson's second reply show the Junkers "as the 
principal obstacles to peace"? 

14. Why was the advance of the Americans through the Argonne 
Forest so fatal to Germany? 

15. What was the great danger to the German armies? 

16. Why did Czechs and Hungarians declare their independence? 

17. What forced the Germans to give up the submarine campaign? 

18. How was Turkey put out of the war? 

19. Why did the Italians wait till October 24 to begin their attack 
on Austria? 

20. How many allies were left to Germany after Austria's sur- 
render ? 



CHAPTER XVII 
The Closing Scenes 

The Americans on the Meuse. — A stubborn, savage conflict. — The 
American big naval guns at work. — The Germans are broken 
at last. — An order to the fleet to sacrifice itself. — The rev- 
olution flares out. — - The disappearance of the Austrian army. 
— Germany protests against Allied air raids. — The Germans 
on the run. — Wilsons last word, Surrender. — The German 
envoys meet Foch. — The terms. — Germany boils over. — The 
All-Highest and his son become private citizens. — The Bel- 
gian refugees in Holland recognize a fellow exile — The British 
at Mons. — The French at Sedan. — Cease firing — The Tiger s 
triumph. — The news in London and Washington. — The top- 
pling of the crowns. — Karl of Austria and Albert of Belgium. — 
The German fleet at last celebrates "Der Tag." 

The attention of the world had been drawn to the 
spectacular victories of Allenby in Palestine, of 
d'Esperey in Macedonia, of Diaz in the Venetian 
plain, of Plumer, Degoutte, and King Albert in 
Flanders, of Byng and Rawlinson at the main 
Hindenburg Line, and of Mangin and Guillaumat 
at the Hunding Line. 

But in one part of the western front there had 
been raging a grim, desperate, hand-to-hand battle 
which would settle once for all the question whether 
Germany could hold her armies together for another 
year's campaign or would be obliged to surrender un- 
conditionally in order to prevent a panic and a rout. 

4*8 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



449 



This was the fight that the Americans of the 
First Army, under General Hunter Liggett, together 
with Gouraud's Fourth French 'Army were making 
to break the Kriemhilde and Freya Lines. "The 
fate of the Fatherland may 
hang upon the fight north 
of Verdun," said a Ger- 
man general to his men, 
during the course of this 
battle. About one-sixth 
of the fighting men of the 
German army were being 
used along twenty-five 
miles of the front, in a 
determined effort to keep 
the Americans and Gou- 
raud from cutting the 
Longuyon-Sedan railroad. 

Meanwhile, a Second 
American Army, under 
General Bullard, was being formed on the right, to 
operate on the eastern bank of the Meuse. The 
Germans had been forced to guard the ap- 
proaches to Metz and the Briey iron fields. A 
group of American signal corps men, sending fake 
wireless messages, had kept the enemy expecting 
a severe attack in this direction. As a consequence, 
some of the best German troops had been held in 
reserve near Metz, looking for the American attack 
which never came. 




© Keystone View Co . , Inc. 

General Liggett 



45° 



HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 



A big quantity of heavy artillery and great num- 
bers of machine guns had been massed before the 
advancing First Army, and these were manned by 

picked men, ordered to 
resist to the death. These 
orders were obeyed. There 
were no braver fighters in 
the war than the defend- 
ers of the Freya Line. 

Some of the hills and 
villages on this system of 
trenches were taken and 
retaken five and six times. 
It was a hard, punishing 
task, with one hill after 
another to be stormed, and 
line after line of barbed 
wire and machine guns 
to be forced. But the 
young Americans kept pouring out their blood and 
their lives. They were paying a heavy price for 
each mile that they advanced, but, once through the 
Kriemhilde Line, the task grew easier. By the 28th 
of October the sixteen-inch naval guns, the most 
powerful weapons on the western front (with the 
exception of the freak cannon that shelled Paris), 
were . landing their terrific shells on the Longuyon 
railway. This was the beginning of the very 
end. 

For once this road were put out of commission, 



A 


1 1 R 1 










v x 


Xy 1 <& ^ 



General Bullard 



THE CLOSING SCENES 451 

the German armies between Valenciennes and Sedan 
were cut off from their base of supplies. When the 
first shell from one of these monsters fell on a German 
railroad the enemy awoke to the fact that another 
nation besides their own could do big things with 
machines. By the 30th of October the tremendous 
shells from these guns were busy tearing up the 
all-important, road, and the Germans knew that the 
end was near. 

On November 1 , the American First Army crashed 
through the last German line (the Freya) that barred 
their way northward. The constant, dogged 
pressure and pounding of the whole month of 
October was bearing fruit at last. Over toward 
the west Gouraud's men had discovered the same 
thing : the enemy, beaten, were in rapid retreat 
northward. The race with winter had been won. 
The Germans could no longer stand up against the 
terrific hammering of Foch. 

The story of the next few days is the story of a 
triumphal procession. The Americans between the 
Meuse and Gouraud's French army advanced north- 
ward at the rate of from four to six miles' a day. 
Only here and there did the enemy stand and resist. 
Not content with their success on the western bank, 
the Americans began crossing the river to the east. 
This passage the Germans vigorously disputed, 
fighting with renewed energy through the night of 
November 4. Nevertheless, when morning came, 
the American engineers had three pontoon bridges 



452 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

in place, and thousands of troops were pushing their 
way across the river. 

Meanwhile, what of the home front in Germany? 
The Arch- Junker Erich von Ludendorff had resigned 
as Quartermaster- General, on October 27, after the 
Reichstag had voted that the military command 
should be responsible to the (civil) cabinet. There 
followed days of turmoil. The Kaiser's abdication 
from the throne was openly demanded in the Reichs- 
tag, where an astonishing freedom of speech had 
sprung up within the last few days. 

Then came the match that touched off the maga- 
zine. Thinking that somebody must make a grand, 
heroic, spectacular sacrifice in order to reawaken the 
fighting spirit of the nation, the Kaiser sent orders to 
his gallant sailors that they should steam out into the 
North Sea, attack the British Grand Fleet and go 
down with bands playing and colors flying. This 
might save the throne and show people that there 
still was the old devotion to the All-Highest. The 
admiral of the fleet, knowing the temper of his 
sailors, among whom a serious mutiny had been put 
down, with difficulty, in 191 7, sent back word that 
the men would obey the order much more cheer- 
fully if the Kaiser should share their fortune by 
going out to battle, himself, on one of his great 
dreadnoughts. 

And then Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, who had 
been taught all his life that men should die for 
him and his family, had his one opportunity to wipe 



THE CLOSING SCENES 453 

out, in the courage with which he should go out to 
meet death, a great deal of the scorn and contempt 
with which the civilized world had looked upon 
him. To go to the bottom in one of his favorite 
ships, in a brave, though theatrical death, would 
have enabled the Germans to lift up their heads and 
say "This Kaiser whom we worshiped and obeyed 
so long was a man, after all." But, consistent with 
his training and his life — the Junker thought that 
others must be sacrificed that he might enjoy all of 
the world's best things — Wilhelm von Hohenzollern 
sent back the message to his fleet that he declined 
their invitation to die with them, but that they 
should go ahead and die, anyhow, to save the glory 
of the Imperial Family. 

And then the smoldering mutiny burst out into 
a blaze ; the long-suppressed anger boiled over. 
The sailors on the ships rose up, shot any officers 
that resisted them, joined forces with their brothers 
on land, and hoisted the red banner of revolution. 

Prince Henry, the Kaiser's brother, raised a red 
flag on his auto and escaped, although some marines 
recognized him and sent a volley of shots after the 
fleeing machine. The triumphant sailors swarmed 
upon trains and rushed to Hamburg, Bremen, and 
other near-by cities, revolution and rioting following 
in their footsteps. 

Meanwhile, in Berlin, it had been announced that 
the Kaiser had surrendered to the people all his 
rights, — meaning that after this, he would reign 



454 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

as a figurehead only, like his royal cousin of England. 
Too late, Wilhelm von Hohenzollern, too late ! 

Now, with Austria falling apart, and the German 
throne tottering, what of that dauntless little nation 
whose resolute attitude had provoked the first 
onslaught of the war for World Power? Where 
were the Serbs ? On November 3 their triumphant 
army once more occupied the capital city, Belgrade, 
and the next day not an enemy was to be found in 
arms on Serbian soil. The invasion of the Serb- 
inhabited provinces of Austria now followed. A few 
days later Sarajevo, capital of Bosnia and scene of the 
killing of Franz Ferdinand, gave a joyous welcome 
to the invading Serbian army. The South Slavs 
were united at last. The assembly of Croats and 
Dalmatians at Agram voted that the three provinces 
of Croatia, Dalmatia, and Slavonia should hence- 
forth be part of the kingdom of the Jugo-Slavs. 

Only Austrian bayonets had. kept this part of the 
empire under the sway of the Hapsburgs, — and 
where was the Austrian army now? It could no 
longer be called an army. Three hundred thousand 
prisoners had been taken by the Italians, nearly 
half the forces that, a few days before, had held 
the trenches from Lago di Garda to the Piave and 
thence to the sea. As for the remainder of the 
troops, they were disorganized, broken into fleeing 
fragments, and traveling across the country without 
leaders or orders, like droves of helpless sheep. 
The Imperial Army no longer existed. 



i 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



455 



While the Austrian General von Weber was receiv- 
ing from General Badoglio (ba dol'yo) , Chief of Staff 
to General Diaz, the terms under which fighting would 
be stopped, the triumphant Italians were pouring 
into the redeemed city of 
Trent, and from the Italian 
ships sailors and marines 
were landing to take pos- 
session of Trieste, where 
the population gave them 
a frantic reception. Italia 
Irredenta was no more. 

On November 3 the armis- 
tice was signed, to go into 
effect the next day. It was 
another case of complete 
surrender. The Italians 
had taken enormous booty 
in the shape of guns and 
military supplies, yet Austria agreed to surrender 
half her remaining artillery and equipment. All the 
Tyrol south of the Brenner Pass, all the country about 
Gorizia, Trieste, and Pola, and the greater part 
of Dalmatia and its islands were to be occupied by 
Italian and Allied forces. All railway and military 
equipment in these districts was to be turned over, 
and the Allies were to have the right of free move- 
ment over all Austro- Hungarian railroads and 
waterways in making war on Germany. 

All German troops were to be sent out of the 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

General Badoglio 



456 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

empire within fifteen days, under penalty of being 
interned. All Allied prisoners were to be set 
free immediately, but Austro-Hungarian prisoners 
were still to be kept in Italy. Fifteen Austro- 
Hungarian submarines and three battleships, three 
cruisers, nine destroyers, twelve torpedo boats 
(practically all of the Austrian navy that was left 
after Rizzo finished destroying it), and six Danube 
monitors were to be surrendered. All the Austrian 
ports were to be left in Allied hands. Such was the 
end of the ''punishing expedition" against the 
''impudent Serbs" which Count von Berchtold had 
organized with so light a heart. 

On November 4, there came from Germany to the 
United States a note which for brazen effrontery is 
hard to match. It stated that for the past few weeks 
the Germans had ceased sending airplanes to bomb 
unfortified towns in France, feeling sure that the Allies 
would also stop bombing German cities ; but that they 
were pained and surprised to observe that English 
and American aviators still kept on dropping bombs 
on German cities along the Rhine. This from the 
nation which had sent its Zeppelins to drop their 
deadly missiles on British kindergartens and French 
churches ; which had deliberately bombed Allied 
hospitals, marked plainly on the roof with the red 
cross ; which had torpedoed British hospital ships ; 
and had planned, as late as October 1, to burn 
London and Paris by dropping firebrands upon 
these cities. The only reason why the German 



THE CLOSING SCENES 457 

aviators had stopped bombing French towns was 
that all of them were sorely needed on the battle lines 
as their number grew less. 

And now Foch was throwing forward his great 
armies all along the line from the Vosges Mountains 
to the Dutch frontier. For the Belgian coast had 
been left behind in the swift advance of the armies 
of Degoutte, Plumer, and King Albert. In fact, 
some 15,000 German troops, caught between the 
advancing Allies and the Dutch border, had to cross 
over into the Netherlands and give themselves up. 
The great battle along the western front had become 
a pursuit. 

Northward from the region of the Argonne Forest 
came the swift advance of the American First Army. 
On the 7th of November their vanguard stood just 
below Sedan, where the Germans, on September 
2, 1870, had captured the French Emperor and half 
his army. The railroad upon which the Germans 
relied for retreat was in their hands. 

The Americans did not enter Sedan itself, reserv- 
ing that honor for Gouraud's French army, which 
had paralleled their northward march, and which 
now stood with them astride the only road to safety 
for half of Hindenburg's troops. The forces of the 
enemy were in a trap. Foch had prepared two 
great drives, one northward, to herd the German 
armies into the narrow neck of the fan of railroads 
leading from Liege ; the other with fresh American 
and French troops eastward into German Lorraine 



458 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and Lower Alsace. Within a week the German 
retreat would have become a hopeless rout, like 
that of the Austrian armies. 

But help was at hand. The German Foreign 
Secretary, Dr. Solf, had written President Wilson 
on October 27 that his government was ready for 
the armistice. This meant surrender, and was so 
understood. One final note, dated November 5, 
was sent by Secretary Lansing to Germany. In 
it he stated that while the Allies were ready to 
make terms on the basis of President Wilson's 
speech of January 8, in which he named fourteen 
points as needed for a lasting peace, they wished 
it distinctly understood that point two, on the 
freedom of the seas, might mean a very different 
thing from what the Germans thought it did. 
Then, too, regarding the " restoring" of occupied 
territories : this would mean that Germany must 
pay for the damage that she had done to the 
property of the Allies by land, by sea, and from the 
air. He closed by referring the Germans to the 
Allied Commander-in-Chief. On November 7, the 
German headquarters sent a message by wireless to 
Marshal Foch that a party headed by Secretary 
of State Erzberger was leaving for the front to ask 
the terms of the armistice. The French signaled 
back that orders had been given to meet them on 
a certain road. Late in the evening of that day 
they were led through the French lines. 

The next morning at nine o'clock they were con- 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



459 



ducted into a wood near Rethondes to a railroad car 
which the Marshal was using for his headquarters. 
The scene was impressive. Two of the Germans 
wore the uniforms of generals, one that of a captain 
in the navy. The other two, Count Oberndorf and 
Herr Erzberger, wore civilian clothes. As the Ger- 
mans were ushered in, there rose. to meet them the 
Marshal ; his Chief of Staff, General Weygand 
[va'gan(g)] ; Admiral Sir Rosslyn Wemyss (weemz) 
of the British navy ; and the American Vice- Admiral 
William S. Sims. The Germans saluted, but the 
Marshal did not respond. Instead, he fastened his 
eyes upon a decoration adorning the breast of Herr 
Erzberger, — none other than that of the French 
Legion of Honor, given to him in the days when 
France had hoped to continue to live at peace with 
her eastern neighbor. With amazing effrontery the 
man had dared to put it on for this meeting. 
The figures stood, immovable, for a moment or two, 
during which the steely eyes of the Allied Com- 
mander-in-Chief never left the offending ribbon. 
Finally Erzberger blushed and removed the decora- 
tion. Foch's hand came smartly to salute, and he 
asked the Germans to state their errand. 

They replied that they had been advised by Presi- 
dent Wilson that Marshal Foch was to tell them the 
terms upon which an armistice might be granted. 

After a few questions had been asked and answered 
the Marshal drew out a paper and proceeded to read 
from it the terms. These were as follows : 



460 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

1. That all of Belgium, France, Alsace-Lorraine, 
and Luxemburg be emptied of German troops and 
occupied by the Allies within fourteen days ; and 
that all inhabitants of these countries who had been 
carried away to Germany be brought home again 
within fifteen days. 

2. That the Germans surrender 2500 heavy 
guns, 2500 field guns, 25,000 machine guns, 3000 
mine-throwers, and 1700 airplanes. 

3. That the Allies should hold all the left bank 
of the Rhine as well as the three cities of Mainz, 
Koblenz, and Koln (Mayence, Coblence, and 
Cologne), and the territory around them for a half 
circle, 30 kilometers in diameter, eastward. The 
inhabitants of the occupied territories were not to 
be molested, nor should any damage be done to 
property. 

4. Five thousand locomotives, 150,000 railroad 
cars, and 5000 motor trucks were to be surrendered. 
The railways of Alsace and Lorraine were to be 
handed over, with all their cars and locomotives. 

5. All poisoned wells and planted mines were 
to be pointed out within two days. 

6. All Allied prisoners to be sent home at once. 
But German prisoners were to remain, for the time 
being, in captivity. 

7. All German troops were to be withdrawn at 
once from Austria-Hungary, Roumania, and Turkey, 
and from Russia as soon as the Allies thought it wise. 
All German agents to leave Russia at once. 



THE CLOSING SCENES 461 

8. No more supplies for Germany to be stolen 
from Russia or Roumania, and the treaties of peace 
forced upon these two countries in the spring of 
191 8 to be declared null and void. 

9. All damage done to be paid for. The money 
stolen from the National Bank of Belgium to be 
put back ; also all money, bonds, and valuable 
papers taken from the invaded countries. The gold 
collected forcibly from Russia and Roumania to be 
turned over to the Allies to be held by them until 
it could be returned to its rightful owners. 

1 o. The surrender of all submarines and the intern- 
ment in Allied ports of six German battle cruisers, ten 
battleships, eight light cruisers, fifty destroyers. 

1 1 . All mines in the seas to be swept up, Germany 
indicating their position. 

12. All ships, boats, naval supplies, and arms in 
Belgian ports to be left where they were. 

13. No destruction of ships or material to be 
permitted. 

14. The armistice to last thirty days, with the 
opportunity to extend it. An armistice commission 
to be appointed, from all nations concerned, to see 
to the carrying out of the terms. 

As these terms, which meant nothing short of 
complete surrender, were read in a clear, distinct voice 
by the Commander-in-Chief, the Germans seemed to 
realize, at last, that the trap that they had prepared 
for others had closed upon themselves. They ap- 
peared like men stunned, unable at first to say a word. 



462 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

At last they said that they must send a messenger 
to German headquarters, and must send a wireless 
message ahead of him. This was granted. Herr 
Erzberger then asked Marshal Foch to stop the 
fighting until the answer came back. The Marshal 
replied that such a course was absolutely out of the 
question ; and the parties separated. Some difficulty 
was found in getting the German messenger through 
his own lines, as the German guns kept on firing 
for some time after being ordered to stop, and it 
was thought that he would have to be sent by air- 
plane. At last, however, he reached headquarters, 
but not until ten o'clock on the morning of Novem- 
ber 10. 

He had been away only three days, but they were 
momentous days in the history of Germany. The 
news of the successful revolt of the sailors was 
spreading like wildfire over the land. At several 
cities, notably Stuttgart and Munich, there had 
gathered great mobs, who waved red flags and cried, 
"Down with the war and the Kaiser." 

The news of these uprisings was given to the 
All-Highest. He refused to believe it. Had not 
these people been trained all their lives to believe 
that the only thing in Germany worth while was 
the glory of the Hohenzollern Family? Prince 
Max, the Chancellor, and other leaders urged him 
to announce that he had given up his throne. 
He refused to do so. There was no time to 
be lost. The temper of the mobs was becoming 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



463 



more and more ugly. Finally Max and the cabi- 
net took matters into their own hands. They 
announced, on November 9, that the Kaiser had 
"decided to renounce the throne." The Chan- 
cellor, said the announcement, would remain in 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Friedrich Ebert 




Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Kaiser Wilhelm II. 



office until the details about the abdication of 
the Kaiser and the renouncing of his rights by the 
Crown Prince should have been settled. He would 
then appoint Herr Ebert, the well-known saddle- 
maker and Socialist member of the Reichstag, to 
take his place. In the meantime it was proposed 



464 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

that the Reichstag pass a law allowing everybody 
to vote for members of a National Assembly which 
should decide the future form of government for the 
German nation. 

And then the "lid" of the boiling pot suddenly 
blew off. Everywhere the red flags appeared, work- 
men struck, and cheering mobs filled the streets. As 
haughty Junker officers appeared on the sidewalks of 
Berlin, — the same officers who used to crowd the 
common people and foreigners, even ladies, into 
the gutters, — the formerly downtrodden commoners 
stripped off their shoulderstraps and ornaments 
and forced them to cry out "Long live the 
Revolution." 

Oh, haughty Junkers ! For years you had lived on 
the best of the land, contributing nothing to the 
world's betterment or happiness, but showing your 
brother men, who fed you by their labors, that 
you considered them as the dirt beneath your feet. 
For centuries you and yours lorded it over the 
people whom you might have taught to love 
you. They were a docile people, who fawned 
upon you when you kicked them. But under- 
neath all their servility there lived resentment and 
the feeling that one day their time would come. 
It is here at last, and you must sing their songs and 
wave red flags — otherwise it will go hard with 
you! 

A great ovation was given Herr Scheidemann as 
he announced to the crowd before the Reichstag 



THE CLOSING SCENES 465 

building that the Kaiser had abdicated. The revolu- 
tion had passed into history. 

Meanwhile, what of the All-Highest? At Spa, 
in Belgium (the General Headquarters), he had 
fought to the last against the surrender. He had 
even given orders that the armistice delegation 
should not start for the French lines. But Hinden- 
burg insisted that the game was up and said that 
he would not be responsible for anything that 
might happen if the Kaiser refused to sign his 
abdication. Herr Scheidemann, who three weeks 
before had hinted that the Kaiser's resignation might 
be the only way out, now sent a message from the 
cabinet practically ordering him to yield. 

After a stormy scene, in which the aged Field 
Marshal told his master some unpleasant truths, 
the mighty War Lord sat down and set his trembling 
signature to the fateful document. Then Friedrich 
Wilhelm, darling of the military crowd and hope 
of the Junkers, signed after his father. This was 
late on Saturday, November 9. 

Early the next morning, the Dutch sentry at the 
little town of Eysden on the frontier was startled to 
see a group of officers in German uniform rolling up in 
automobiles. He promptly challenged them, and 
asked for their papers. They told him that here was 
the great Kaiser, and that all was right, as it had been 
arranged with the Dutch government that he should 
go on to the castle of Count Bentinck in Amerongen. 
The sentry was dubious, and refused to let them pass 



466 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

until he had sent for an officer. Meanwhile, a 
royal train of sleeping and dining cars had followed 
the party and now stood in the station. After a long 
delay, during which the ex-Kaiser strode up and down 
the station platform, chafing and fuming because he 
was thus held up, the Dutch officers in charge of the 
troops on the border at last decided to allow the train 
to pass. The Kaiser took his seat at a window of 
one of the parlor cars. But as he did so there 
gathered around the station in the gray mists of the 
early morning a group of Belgians, some of those 
who had been driven by German cruelty to leave 
their homes and take refuge in Holland. They 
recognized the Kaiser. There, shorn of his power 
and glory, sat the man who had slain their loved 
ones, had burned their homes, and ravaged their 
land. 

" Assassin ! " " Murderer ! " "Cowardly dog ! " they 
cried. "Give us back our young men ! " "Give us 
back our girls, torn from their mothers to go into 
slavery in your accursed land!" And as the train 
began to move they ran after it, pelting it with 
stones and clods, and screaming curses. 

Only five short months ago, Wilhelm von Hohen- 
zollern, you were planning to plant your mailed heel 
upon the prostrate neck of civilization, and to order 
the free peoples of the earth to bring }^ou their treas- 
ure and their liberties and, cringing, to lay them at 
your feet. 

Instead, you sit wincing and shrinking as you 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



467 




mmii 



Lines during January and February, 1918 

Line marking furthest German advance {July 17th) 

Line at the time of the armistice, Nov. 11th 

Railways by which the German armies were supplied 

International boundaries 

Territory gained by the Germans, MarchSlst to July 18th, but retaken by the Allies, 

July 18th to Sept. 2nd 

itory held by the Germans from 1914, but retaken by the Allies, 
Sept. 2nd to Nov. 11th 

Territory of France, Belgium and Luxemburg still held by the Germans at the 
time of their surrender 
Alsatian territory taken from the Germans by the French before 1918 



hear for the first time how the common people of 
the world regard you, and you draw away from the 
window lest you be struck by the missile of an angry 
Belgian peasant. 



468 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

Sic transit gloria mundi. 

Meanwhile, Foch is still driving. His sw T ift pur- 
suit gives the Germans no rest. Early in the morn- 
ing of November n, the inhabitants of Ghent, 
in Belgium, awoke to realize that the machine guns 
which had been fiercely blazing away to the west of 
their city on the evening before had become strangely 
still during the night. They peered out, cautiously 
— no Germans in sight. It might be an ambuscade 
for the Allied troops ; they would take no chances. 
Ah, some soldiers ! The Belgian uniforms ! With sobs 
and screams of joy the citizens poured out of their 
houses into the streets to fall upon these newcomers, 
embracing them and each other in their ecstasy. 
The long nightmare of German occupation was over, 
the sinister shadow of Prussian militarism had 
passed away forever. 

There had been fierce fighting near Oudenarde 
fifteen miles away, but the British had broken the 
front of the retreating Germans and were pushing 
on rapidly. Still farther to the south, one of the 
British armies had reached familiar ground. They 
entered, on the morning of November n, the city 
of Mons, where the "Old Contemptibles " had first 
met the enemy, and from which they had retreated, 
overwhelmed by the gray-green flood which had 
poured upon them so ceaselessly. 

The French, meanwhile, were sweeping forward all 
along the line. The Italian division fighting with 
them stormed the historic town of Rocroi (roc'rwa') 



THE CLOSING SCENES 



469 



on the morning of November 11, while Debeney's 

men had left Maubeuge behind them and 

had crossed the line into Belgium. The American 

First Army, having seized the heights south of Sedan, 

courteously stood aside, and let Gouraud's men be the 

first to enter the 

town. For Sedan 

was sacred ground 

to the French. 

About seven o'clock 

the order was flashed 

along both lines : 

"Cease firing at 

eleven ; the armistice 

has been signed." 

For four hours 

more the guns kept 

on pounding away, 

— then suddenly 

ceased. The great 

war was over. 

Let us turn for 
a moment to Paris, 
where the people 
had known, since 

morning, that the armistice had been signed. Tense 
with suppressed emotion, they had waited for the offi- 
cial announcement, to be made before the lawmakers 
by the prime minister in person. As the old fighter 
with quick, brisk step ascended the rostrum, the 




© Keystone View Co., Inc. 

Georges Clemenceau 



470 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

deputies rose as one man and gave a mighty cheer 
for "the father of the victory." 

"I read," said he, "the terms of the armistice," 
and he began, in a clear, distinct voice. The chamber 
rocked with applause as it was indicated that the 
return of Alsace-Lorraine was included, that the 
submarines were surrendered, that the French troops 
were to march to the Rhine. The deputies roared 
with laughter at the "Tiger's" sarcastic reference 
to the "Imperial German Government," for the 
news of the Kaiser's flight had spread. From the 
same platform where, forty-seven years before, he 
had passionately denounced the treaty of peace with 
Germany because it tore away Alsace and Lorraine, 
this wonderful old man now announced the fruits 
of his wise counsel and intrepid spirit. The greatest 
war of all time was over, and it was France who had 
triumphed ; France, the weak, decadent nation, 
which the Germans had so pitied. 

As the old man ceased amid a roar of cheering, 
he stepped down from the platform to find himself 
surrounded by his old enemies, the Socialists, 
rushing forward to grasp his hands, a symbol of 
the united France whose spirit had won the war. 

In London, as well as Paris, the people gave them- 
selves up to wild enthusiasm and whole-hearted 
enjoyment. All through the Allied countries there 
were parades and celebrations. It is doubtful 
whether any event in the history of the world ever 
brought such a universal outbreak of joy. 



THE CLOSING SCENES 471 

In Washington there was a hurried summoning 
of Senators and Representatives for a joint session. 
At one o'clock promptly the President appeared 
before them. He was greeted by a great outburst of 
cheering. As he read the terms of the armistice, 
his hearers listened intently. They frequently in- 
terrupted him with applause, but only once with 
cheers, the heartiest of cheers. It was the return 
of Alsace-Lorraine that brought them to their feet. 
Thus did the heart of America respond to the dearest 
wish of France. 

Meanwhile two kings in Europe were hearing from 
their subjects. Poor Karl of Hapsburg, last ruler 
of that famous family of Junkers who first became 
lords of the empire in the thirteenth century, had 
been doing some deep thinking. News had reached 
him that mobs on the street were compelling officers 
to tear off the imperial colors from their caps. He 
had heard how the Hapsburg flag had been hauled 
down from the Parliament building in Vienna amid 
the enthusiastic cheers of .the people. He had 
learned of the proclamation of the Czecho-Slovak 
republic, with Professor Masaryk as its first presi- 
dent. 

A formal notice had come from the Poles that they 
had organized a new republic and had annexed 
all of Galicia. The separation of Hungary was an 
accomplished fact, as was the union of the South 
Slavs of the empire with their cousins, the Serbs 
and Montenegrins. For Karl there was no empire. 



472 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

It had fallen apart over night, leaving him only 
German Austria, which was tearing down his flag 
and proclaiming itself a republic. 

On November 13, he gave out a notice that he 
did not wish to be a hindrance to the free develop- 
ment of his people, and that accordingly he would 
give up all part in the administration of the state 
and release Austrian officials from their promises 
to obey him. This signed, he stole away with his 
wife and children to their castle at Eckhartsau. 

A well-meaning young man, who had inherited 
the results of the mistakes and follies of his uncle, 
personally he had not been to blame. He had 
been caught in the net of German intrigue 
and could not extricate himself. The aged 
Franz Josef had been the tool of the Ger- 
man Junkers and the military party of his own 
Empire, headed by Berchtold, Hoetzendorf, and 
Count Tisza (te'so). This last named nobleman, 
who had hated Franz Ferdinand and is suspected of 
having plotted his murder, was sitting in his palace 
on November 3 with his wife and two other ladies, 
when three Hungarian soldiers entered. The Count 
asked them what business they had with him. They 
said that they would tell him after the ladies had 
left the room. The ladies, thoroughly alarmed, 
refused to go. Then the leader of the three, telling 
the Count that he had betrayed his country by 
forcing it into the war and that his time was come, 
drew his pistol. The other two did the same, and 



THE CLOSING SCENES 473 

they fired at the same instant. Thus perished the 
chief Junker of Hungary. 

At almost the same instant that Karl of Hapsburg 
was stealing away from Vienna, hoping to escape 
the notice of his people, another king was returning 
to his own. 

The heroic Albert of Belgium, who through the entire 
four years had never left his little army, who had 
shared the rough quarters of the fighters, their dangers 
and their defeats, was making his entry into Ghent. 
On his right rode General Plumer, Commander of the 
British Second Army. On his left General Degoutte 
of the French Sixth Army. Belgian, French, and Brit- 
ish officers escorted the Queen and the young prince. 

As they halted in the Place d'Armes (plas' darm') , 
the veterans of the Yser, of Dixmude, and Ypres 
marched past in review. And as the flowers fell in 
a rain from the windows and balconies above, the 
liberated people cheered and sobbed their welcome 
to the heroes who during all the four and a half 
years of suffering and privation had stood, literally 
in the last ditch in Belgium, and defied the gray- 
green hordes of the All-Highest to do their worst. 

Here was a king who had kept his faith and had 
never faltered in his devotion to his men. But all 
through Germany crowns were falling, as one by one, 
the Junker monarchs and lords gave up their thrones. 
The King of Bavaria anticipated the Kaiser by one 
day in becoming a plain citizen of the new republic. 
The Duke of Brunswick, the Kings of Wiirttemberg 



474 HISTORY OF THE WORLD WAR 

and Saxony, the Grand Dukes of Oldenburg, 
Mecklenburg, and Baden followed in rapid succession. 
The last relics of the Middle Ages were falling upon 
the scrap heap. 

One more scene, and this last chapter of our story 
is closed. It will be recalled that the favorite toast 
among the swagger young Junkers who formed the 
officer class of the German navy was "der Tag" 
(the day) meaning the day when their fleet should 
steam out to meet the English on the open sea. 

With the single exception of the Jutland battle, 
which, as you recall, was ended by the flight of the 
Germans under cover of night, the High Seas Fleet 
of Von Tirpitz had confined its activities to the 
guarding of the Kiel Canal. 

But on the 21st of November the German fleet 
at last came out. They met the British fleet, 
reenforced by five American battleships. Guided 
by wireless signals, and piloted by the British 
cruiser Cardiff, five great battle cruisers, nine 
dreadnoughts, seven cruisers, and forty-nine de- 
stroyers (one had struck a mine on the sea and had 
sunk) steamed in a long line between the ships of the 
British Fleet and gave themselves up, in ignominious 
surrender. 

There comes before one's eyes the picture of Sir 
David Beatty, Admiral of the Fleet, as he stood on 
the bridge of the Queen Elizabeth, watching these 
would-be lords of the water celebrate "der Tag." 
What must have been his thoughts ! 



THE CLOSING SCENES 475 

QUESTIONS FOR REVIEW 

t. What efforts did the Germans make to stop the northward 
march of the Americans? 

2. What was the result of the breaking of the Freya line? 

3. Why were the German warships ordered out to sea? 

4. Why did they refuse to go? 

5. What had become of the Austrian army? 

6. Had the Germans any other fortifications to hold back the 
Allies? 

7. What plans had Foch for further drives at Germany? 

8. Why did the Germans surrender ? 

9. Of what did the terms make sure ? 

10. What was happening in Germany between November 7 and 10? 

1 1 . Why did the Kaiser decide to give up his throne ? 

12. Why was the Crown Prince forced to sign away his rights to 
the German crown? 

13. Why did the Kaiser seek refuge in Holland? 

14. Why were the British glad to close their fighting by retaking 
Mons? 

15. Why did it mean so much for the French to capture Sedan? 

16. What brought the greatest joy to the French deputies? 

17. What was left to Kaiser Karl of his former empire? 

18. Why did the Hungarian people hate Count Tisza? 

19. Why were the Belgians so loyal to their king? 

20. Why did the kings and dukes of Germany have to give up their 
thrones ? 

21. Why was the surrender of the German fleet so important? 



INDEX 



Albert of Belgium, 386, 473. 

Allenby, captures Jerusalem, 256 ; 
routs Turks, 380-2, 425, 443. 

Alsace-Lorraine, taken from France, 
1 1-3 ; people of, 29, 70 ; question 
of, 404. 

Americans, take Cantigny, 325 ; 
check Germans, 326-7 ; take St. 
Mihiel salient, 370-3 ; drive north 
of Verdun, 382-6 ; advance 
through Argonne, 425; break 
German lines, 449-5 1 . 

Anzacs, 132, 256. 

Arabia, 29. 

Austria, interferes in Balkan affairs, 
32 ; sends ultimatum to Serbia, 
41-6; declares war, 47; invades 
Russia, 70; loses greater part of 
its navy, 319-20 ; beaten back by 
Italy, 334-6; invites warring 
nations to a conference, 419 ; goes 
to pieces, 438; signs treaty of 
peace, 456. 

Austrian empire, ally of Germany, 
24; composition of, 25. 

Bagdad, 22, 29, no; captured, 

212. 
Balkan Wars, 31, 33. 
Beatty, Admiral, 100, 176-8, 474. 
Belgian Prince, sinking of the, 234. 
Belgium, refuses passage to German 

armies, 63 ; plight of, 159. 
Belgrade, captured by the Austrians, 

56 ; finally retaken, 454. 
Berchtold, Count, 41, 411. 
Berlin-Bagdad railroad, 22, 29, no. 
Berthelot, 187, 339~43, 346. 



Bismarck, 9-12; dismissal of, 15; 
feeling toward colonies, 20; deal- 
ings with Austria and Italy, 138. 

Boers, 53, 114-5. 

Bolo, 393-4- 

Bolsheviki, 244, 247, 402. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, 7. 

Bosnia, 25. 

Brandenburg, 5-6. 

Brest-Litovsk, council of, 265-70, 
272, 403. 

Brusiloff, 137, 173-6. 

Bulgaria, enters first Balkan War„ 
3 1 ; starts second Balkan War, 33 ; 
enters World War, 153; loses 
enthusiasm for the war, 192, 255 ; 
shows signs of weakening, 337 ; 
calls for help, 379; collapsing, 
416; asks for peace, 424-5. 

Bullard, 449. 

Bundesrat, 3. 

Byng, 251, 281, 282, 284, 361. 

Cadorna, 142, 176, 250. 

Caillaux, 220, 392-4. 

Calmette, 392. 

Cameroon country, 17, 116. 

Canadians, 147. 

Caporetto, disaster to Italians at, 

240 ; anniversary of, 446. 
Carey, 284-5. 
Chemin des Dames, 219, 229, 247, 

321, 366-7. 
China forced to surrender rights to 

Germany, 18, 21. 
Churchill, Winston, 99. 
Clemenceau, 251, 288, 323, 363, 391, 

420, 470. 



477 



478 



INDEX 



Colonies, Germany's race for, 20. 
Committee on Public Information, 

399- 
Contraband of war, 11 7-8. 
Croats, 26, 356. 
Czechs, 26, 36, 275, 354; declare 

their independence, 438. 
Czernin, 410. 

Dardanelles, 127-30, 157. 
Debeney, 350-1, 363. 
De Castelnau, 165, 429. 
Degoutte, 343, 347, 365, 388, 425, 

473- 
Delbruck law, 397. 
Delcasse, 152, 154. 
Denmark, beaten in war, 9. 
Diaz, 250, 335, 445. 
Dimitrieff, 134. 
Djemal, 104-5, no, 444. 

Egypt, trade of, 23. 

England, appeals to Germany to 

prevent war, 42. 
Enver, 104-9, 127, 444. 
Erzberger, 433, 458-60. 
Erzerum, capture of, 164. 

Falkland Islands, battle of, 113. 

Fayolle, 285, 343, 430. 

Foch, 82, 91, 148, 181, 243; ap- 
pointed commander in chief, 290 ; 
counter attacks, 349, 354, 363, 
430, 445- 

Four Minute Men, 400-1. 

France, beaten by Prussia, 10-12 ; 
appeals to Germany to prevent 
war, 42. 

Franchet d'Esperey, 81, 336, 379, 

424, 437- 
Franz Ferdinand, 36-8. 
Frederick the Great, 6. 

Gallieni, 79. 

Gallipoli, landing at, 131. 

Garfield, 302. 

Gas, first use of, 147. 



German empire, government of, 3. 

German navy, growth of, 17-8; 
ordered out, 452 ; mutinies, 453 ; 
surrenders, 474. 

German war plan, 49-55. 

Germany, refuses to intervene in 
Austro- Serbian quarrel, 42-3 ; 
sends ultimatum to Russia, 57 ; 
declares war, 57 ; attacks France, 
58 ; demands passage for her 
armies through Belgium, 62 ; car- 
ries off Belgian and French 
civilians as slaves, 199; begins 
' ' unrestricted ' ' submarine war- 
fare, 200 ; drops bombs on civil- 
ians, 230; bombs Red Cross 
hospitals, 230 ; spends great sums 
on propaganda in United States, 
398 ; gives out its intentions in 
June, 19 1 8, 409; asks an armis- 
tice, 432 ; admits Socialists to the 
Cabinet, 433; receives terms of 
peace, 460-1 ; overthrows Kaiser's 
government, 464. 

Gough, 283. 

Gouraud, 339~43, 344. 3^2, 4 2 5, 430, 
451,457- 

Great Britain declares war on Ger- 
many, 65. 

Greece, enters first Balkan War, 31 ; 
enters World War, 227. 

Grey, Sir Edward, 47-8, 56. 

Guillaumat, 430. 

Haig, 170, 208, 315. 
Henry of Prussia, 397, 453. 
Hindenburg, 72-4, 93-5, 127, 229, ' 

279-81. 337, 390. 
Hindenburg Line, 221, 252, 364, 369, 

386, 426-7. 
Hoover, Herbert, 159, 301. 
Home, 282, 284, 419, 426-7. 
Humbert, 352, 361. 
Hungarians (Magyars), 26, 417, 439. 

Ireland's part in the war, 396. 
Irish civil war, 65. 



INDEX 



479 



Italia Irredenta, 138, 404. 

Italy, forms Triple Alliance with 
Germany and Austria, 14 ; refuses 
to declare war on France, 68 ; de- 
clares war on Austria, 142 ; de- 
clares war on Germany, 183. 

Japan, threatened by Germany, 18, 

102 ; replies by warning Germany, 

103 ; captures Tsingtau, 104. 
Jehad, 54, 109-10. 

Jellicoe, 176-9. 
Jerusalem, 255. 
Joffre, 77, 86, 143, 217. 
Jonescu predicts World War, 34. 
Junkers, 5, 12, 13, 16, 403, 404, 406, 
417,421,445,464. 

Kaiser Karl of Austria, 410, 439, 
471-2. 

Kaiser Wilhelm I, crowned, 10 ; 
death of, 14. 

Kaiser Wilhelm II, character of, 14; 
visits the Turkish empire, 22, 91 ; 
replies to Allies, 189, 261 ; con- 
gratulates Krupps, 289 ; accused 
by Lichnowsky, 411 ; orders navy 
out, 452 ; resigns crown, 463-5 ; 
flees to Holland, 466. 

Kerensky, 205, 227, 229, 236, 245. 

Kiel Canal, 35, 37, 49, 474. 

Kitchener, 123, 180. 

Korniloff, 237. 

Koweit, Sheik of, 30-1. 

Lansing, makes disclosures of Ger- 
man diplomacy, 238 ; sends final 
note to Germany, 458. 

Lemberg, taken by the Russians, 73 ; 
retaken by Austria, 136. 

Lenin, 205, 245, 265, 271. 

Lichnowsky, 41 1-2. 

Liggett, 449. 

Lloyd-Geroge, 48, 182, 189, 223; 
states terms of peace, 258. 

Long-range gun shells Paris, 288, 
323, 344- 



Ludendorff, 279-81, 286, 292, 323, 
333, 337, 352, 361, 413, 415, 
4 J 9, 437; planned to burn Paris 
and London, 440; resigns, 452. 

Lusitania, sinking of, 158. 

Luxemburg invaded by Germany, 
58. 

Macedonia, 151. 

Mangin, 194, 220, 331, 343, 361, 430. 

Manoury, 80-2. 

March 21st, attack of, 280-6. 

Marne, first battle of the, 79-83 ; 
second battle of the, 346-9. 

Marshall, 425, 443. 

Masaryk, 354. 

Maude, 172, 211, 425. 

Mesopotamia, 22, no. 

Milioukoff, 202. 

Mons, first battle of, 75-6 ; retaken 
by British, 468. 

Mont Kemmel, 317-8. 

Muehlon accuses German govern- 
ment of having started the war, 
412. 

Neuve Chapelle, 144-6. 

Nicholas, Grand Duke, 71, 126, 136, 

162. 
Nivelle, 190, 209, 219, 220, 231. 

Old Contemptibles, 75, 83, 407, 429. 
Ostend, 248, 31 1-3, 437. 

Pershing, 217, 290, 383. 

Petain, defends Verdun, 168 ; be- 
comes commander in chief, 221, 
329, 343, 430. 

Piave River, 243, 334-5. 

Pill-boxes, 249. 

Plumer, 223, 243, 282, 358, 386, 

425- 
Poland, 417. 

Pope Benedict XV, 289, 403. 
Portugal enters the war, 226. 
Portuguese troops, 315. 



480 



INDEX 



Prussia, history of, 4-1 1. 

Prussian election system, 4-5, 421, 

445; 

Prussian military system, 8. 
Przemysl, 125, 135. 

" Q " ships, 296-7. 

Raids on coast towns, 11 9-21. 
Rawlinson, 282, 350-1, 426-7. 
Red Cross, its hospitals bombed by 

Germans, 230; work in United 

States, 402. 
Reichstag, 3, 58, 397, 441. 
Rennenkampf, 71, 74, 95. 
Ribot, 251, 304-8, 394. 
Rizzo, 319-20. 
Roumania, enters second Balkan 

War, 33 ; declares war on Austria, 

185; signs treaty of peace, 276; 

rises against Austria and Germany, 

437- 
Russia, appealed to by Serbia, 32 ; 
has agreement with France, 34-5 ; 
sets up Constituent Assembly, 
268 ; signs treaty of peace, 272-4. 

St. Mihiel salient, 144, 370-3. 

Salonica, 154, 336, 377, 424-5. 

SamsonofT, 73-4. 

Sazonoff, 48, 411. 

Schleswig-Holstein, 9, 17, 29. 

"Scrap of paper," 66, 147, 149, 274. 

Sedan- Longuyon railroad, 375, 386, 
436, 449-52. 

Serbia, 25 ; enters first Balkan War, 
31 ; second Balkan War, 33 ; 
yields to Austrian demands, 43- 
6 ; drives out Austrian army, 97 ; 
attacked by Bulgaria, 153; re- 
sumes fighting, 191 ; routs Bul- 
garia, 378, 422, 437, 4431 re- 
covers Belgrade, 454. 

Sinn Fein, 395. 

Sixtus of Bourbon, 410. 

Slovaks, 26, 36, 275, 354. 

Somme, battle of the, 182-3. 



Submarine warfare, 101, 157-8, 202., 

293-7, 407-8. 
Suvla Bay, 132. 

Talaat, 104, 444. 

Tisza, 472. 

Townshend, 162, 171, 211, 444. 

Treaty of Bukarest, 34-5, 150. 

Trotzky, 205, 245, 265. 

Tunis seized by France, 14. 

Turkey, German friendship for, 22- 
4; drawn into the war, 108-9; 
driven out of Palestine, 382 ; 
grows weary of the war, 416-7; 
signs treaty of peace, 444. 

Turkish empire, composition of, 28. 

Tuscania, sinking of, 262. 

Tzar of Bulgaria, 150, 379, 422, 433. 

Tzar of Russia, pledges no war with 
Germany; 56, 411; works for 
peace, 57 ; stops sale of strong 
drink, 71 ; orders Duma to ad- 
journ, 204. 

Ukraine, 246, 267, 269 ; signs peace 
treaty, 270. 

United States, enters the war, 215; 
drafts its soldiers, 216; welcomed 
by Allies, 216-7; declares war on 
Austria- Hungary, 254 ; sends men 
to France in great numbers, 300; 
saves food, 301-2 ; replies to 
Austrian peace " feeler, " 420. 

Venizelos, 152, 154, 156, 226, 227. 
Verdun, 77, 143, 165-71, 183, 190, 

193,231. 
Vimy Ridge, 148, 221, 284, 291, 314. 
Vindictive, at Zeebrugge, 309-12; 

at Ostend, 311. 
Von Bernhardi, 13. 
Von Bethmann-Hollweg, 66, 432. 
von Billow, General, 82, 291. 
von Billow, Prince, 139-49. 
Von Falkenhayn, 164, 187, 231. 
Von Hipper, 176. 
Von Hutier, 283, 329. 



INDEX 



481 



Von Kluck, 77, 84. 
Von Luxburg, 237, 392. 
Von Mackensen, 187. 
Von Tirpitz, 17. 

Wilson, warns Germany, 158; asks 
combatants to state aims, 196; 
breaks off relations with Germany, 
202; asks Congress to declare 
war on Germany, 214; states 
fourteen points, 258; proclaims 



need of force, 395 ; replies to the 
Pope, 404-5 ; answers Germany, 
435, 441 ; reads terms of the 
armistice, 471. 

Ypres, 87, 90, 222, 317. 
Yser, 87, 90, 317. 

Zeebrugge, 248, 308-11, 437. 
Zeppelins, 181, 229, 397, 456. 
Zimmerman note, 213-4, 39^- 



I 



